Video Premiere: Death Will Tremble – ‘Departures’

Following the example of Bell Witch, Gorguts and Sleep, Austin doom outfit Death Will Tremble have opted to release their new EP, Departures, as a single song. The similarities largely end there. “Departures” isn’t nearly as long as “Dopesmoker,” “Mirror Reaper” or “Pleides’ Dust,” clocking in at almost 16 minutes.

Death Will Tremble’s brand of doom is slow and droning, but the vocals are sad and expressive, reminding me more of Touche Amore than other doom acts. Because they’re so clear and emotional, the vocals fill what otherwise might be empty space between notes. The accompanying black-and-white video for “Departures” is equally depressing, moving at the same pace as the song, quietly ending with the last bits of feedback.

“After the release of [2016 full-length] Mona, we really started to think about the way we experience this music, and the way we want other people to experience it – and because in our live shows we tend to perform our set without any breaks between songs, we wanted to record this EP in the same way,” says vocalist Hunter Townsend. “This music is so emotionally heavy for us that we want to create an atmosphere, live and in recordings, that requires the listener to really live inside of it instead of skipping from one song to the next.”

Death Will Tremble are on Bandcamp.