Band:	Weird Tales
Album:	Second Coming, Second Crucifixion
Style:	Sludge metal, Stoner metal
Release date:	September 01, 2023
A review by:	RaduP

01. Disgusting & Mean
02. Dead People's Shit
03. Undertaker
04. Krokodil Blues
05. Damned Lovers Of The Swampire
06. Acid Lobotomy

Now that they made sure that we remembered about good ol' son of a bitchin' blues, it's time for Weird Tales to revert back to original ugly doom.

There is a chance I wouldn't have given Weird Tales the attention if not for the name that's an instant H.P. Lovecraft connection, being the name of the magazine that published most of his writings originally, but even more so if not for their last EP, Y'all Motherfuckers Forgot 'Bout Good Ol' Son Of A Bitchin' Blues, which had the benefit of having such a well rounded concept of reintroducing blues to an audience that forgot its place in metal's DNA and forgot just how miserable and desolate blues can be, especially when mutated into Weird Tales's ugly doom. Covering blues classics in a stoner doom style wouldn't have worked as aesthetically impactful without the hanged man cover art of that EP and how much all of it emphasized the shared despair of the two genres.

Second Coming, Second Crucifixion is no longer benefiting from such a cool concept, and without the previous EP's impact, it might've stayed as just this rotten stoner doom album of Weird Tales originals, but there is still something that feels wholly specific to Weird Tales even without constantly having to harken back to a specific release's concept. I mention the "ugly doom" phrase quite a bit because, while doom is pretty often known for being depressing and filled with all sort of negative emotions, associating doom with "ugly" and "rotten" might first bring up images of funeral or death doom rather than stoner doom. Even the sludge doom that has some touches in Second Coming, Second Crucifixion has had way way uglier and rotten instances. And yet, there's rarely a stoner doom album as rotten and as ugly as this one. I mean, just look at that grotesque cover art.

Taking aside the obvious Black Sabbath comparison, the one band that I'm reminded of most is Electric Wizard (and to an extent also Church Of Misery) in how downtrodden the aesthetic is and how negative the fuzz and the drawn out vocals sound. Even at the band's grooviest in "Krokodil Blues", or in the space rock touches in "Acid Lobotomy", where the riffing and soloing sounds its most 70s-ish, there's an overarching painful tone. That's something that feels more in line with the funeral doom sounding moments in "Undertaker" or the bass-heavy sludge moments in "Damned Lovers Of The Swampire", but that only goes to show that Weird Tales are pulling from a lot of doom to make groovy and ugly. And that's not even mentioning the lyrics.

I wasn't around to witness any impact that 2019's Hell Services Cost a Lot might've had, but if Second Coming, Second Crucifixion proves anything, it's that Weird Tales are unto something that's more than just how interesting the concept of one release was.