Band:	Kurokuma
Album:	Born Of Obsidian
Style:	Doom metal, Sludge metal
Release date:	February 2022

01. Smoking Mirror
02. Sacrifice To Huitzilopochtli
03. Jaguar
04. Ololiuqui
05. Under The Fifth Sun

Kurokuma are on a quest to make sludge grim again. With Born Of Obsidian, they’re going about it in the right way.

I first heard of Kurokuma because of said cap, which the drummer of my band frequently wore to rehearsals. I first heard Kurokuma, however, at a show in Camden last spring. It was the first live show I’d been to in over half a year, but I think even if it had been the third show I’d been to that week, I would’ve been equally floored; their relentless, groovy, repetitive, doomy sludge sounded immense live, as it also did at Bloodstock Festival later on in the year. At that first show, they announced at the end that the music was all from their upcoming record, which had already been recorded, but was in limbo waiting for a label to help bring it to the masses. They must’ve eventually sorted something out, because Kurokuma have finally released their debut full-length, and what a strong statement of intent it is.

Born Of Obsidian draws thematically from Mesoamerican myth and history, as indicated by the album artwork. This theme comes through most obviously in the song titles, which include “Ololiuqui” (the Nahuatl name for a species of morning glory whose seeds possess hallucinogenic properties) and “Sacrifice To Huitzilopochtli” (an Aztec deity of war and the Sun). However, these themes seep into Kurokuma’s music, which is in certain aspects ritualistic and psychedelic. The group make ample use of percussion beyond just the drumkit, most notably during the opening of “Jaguar”, during which layers of drums march listeners towards impending battle.

The psychedelic aspect comes through more in the actual metal of Kurokuma. As described earlier, their sound is a form of sludge doom that involves a lot of hypnotic repetition, with insidious grooves sustained for prolonged periods of time. On a song such as “Smoking Mirror”, which opens the album with aplomb, the relentless, plodding march that takes hold from a couple of minutes into the track creeps its way under your skin as you slip into a subconscious nod. Kurokuma dig into the same disarming charm that Sleep pull off at their most trudging and repetitive, but in a bleaker and grimmer form.

Not every song on the album is built in this mould; “Sacrifice To Huitzilopochtli”, comfortably the shortest song on the record, is a bit more direct, more immediate and built for stomping, with almost a melodic thread to the shouted vocals in the chorus. Still, Born Of Obsidian is at its best when it’s locking into a rhythm and bashing listeners’ heads with it for a while, whether it’s the cowbell and eerie feedback midway through “Jaguar” or the bludgeoning weight of the first main riff in “Ololiuqui”. The album closer, “Under The Fifth Sun”, brings together everything great about the other songs (the eerie intro, the ritualistic percussion, the dirty grooves) and places in a slightly lighter and more atmospheric context, nevertheless finding time to squeeze in an opportunity for the bass to flex a bit.

Coming in just shy of 40 minutes, Born Of Obsidian leaves you wanting more, which is a great thing for a debut record. I’m pleasantly surprised by how well most of the songs translated from live settings to the studio; I find myself as hooked on these dense, plodding beasts at home as I was when I first encountered them. It’s been a while in the making, but Born Of Obsidian is a debut that announces Kurokuma as a real force to be reckoned with.