Love doom and sludge metal, but find yourself frustrated that those bands that would monolithically crush the listener fail to pay nearly as much attention to injecting some measure of melody into their music? Ontario duo ITUS may be the cure to what ails ya. Starting with downcast sludgy stoner doom, the pair of guitarist Brandon Lucking and vocalist Reiner Vandenbosch also aren’t shy about making use of psychedelic rock and good ol’ fashioned heavy metal to get their point across. Think of it like Graves at Sea and Conan discovering the magic power of Tony Iommi’s fake fingertips and the blinding quality of a vintage Hawkwind live show. They’ve also previously kicked out a cover of Sepultura’s “Roots Bloody Roots” as an indication that blackened miserable-ness isn’t their be-all and end-all.
Today, we present a stream of Primordial, the band’s forthcoming EP set to be independently released tomorrow. We hit up the band for a comment about the release and Lucking responded, saying:
“Primordial is intended to be the first of two EPs that will culminate into a full length album, and it will be the ‘heaviest’ and darkest sounding release we do with this album cycle. The songs focus around aggressive, dark and primal concepts. Coming from our death metal roots as musicians, we think that this EP will manage to ensnare those who are into heavier music, as well as attract other listeners who may not be so into death metal and related genres. The clean vocals and bright lead guitars really lighten up the darker, heavier passages of the songs. Reinier’s aggressive, chortling screams and yelling portrays an unhinged, brooding darkness, sure to keep listeners on the edge of their seats.”
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