Promising a blend of doom, death, black, d-beat, and grind, California's Seven Sisters of Sleep have released their third album Ezekiel's Hags. The promo description warns us with: “Unquestionably SSOS's heaviest material to date and chock full of tortured vocals, gigantic riffs, and thunderous drums, this is music as vile as it can be.”

Vile it is, heavy it is – but good? I'm not convinced. Living up to the description? No. Ezekiel's Hags is extreme metal with a heavy grind-component to it, but it's rather far from doom, death, and black. The only thing it has in common with doom, death, and black is that it's equally far removed from each of these genres.

There's a lot of grunts and distortion on Ezekiel's Hags, but it feels pointless, as if Seven Sisters of Sleep thought they could make a heavy album by just using heavy elements. The emotional depth is lacking. The direction is not there. I can imagine this must be fun to do, and fun for moshing perhaps, but I can't grasp the message of this music. And somehow, it comes across as sloppy work.

Tracklist

1.  Jones
2.  Denounce
3.  Gutter
4.  Plateau
5.  Brother's river
6.  Prey
7.  Third Season
8.  Sacred Prostitute
9.  Ud-Nun
10. War Master
11. Bastard Son

Label: Relapse Records

Website: https://www.facebook.com/sevensistersofsleep/

Score: 5/10