When one-time Southern Lord art director and multi-instrumentalist Aaron Edge started experiencing pain and numbness in hands and feet whilst recording some new ideas, he had no idea the diagnosis would be multiple sclerosis. With the music already recorded, the lyrics took shape to a background of pain and medicine.
Calling on his brother of the sonic cloth, Tad Doyle and Yob’s subsonic maestro Mike Scheidt to shape his thoughts, Lumbar’s is naturally a heavy-duty record. There are indeed elements of Yob’s crushing doom to be found, as well as nods to Goatsnake and Burning Witch. The vocals veer between melodic and tortured, although always against a soundtrack of rumbling Armageddon.
Low-tuned, slow-motion guitars and bass are driven by pounding war galley drums. With seven tracks dealing with coming to terms with a new miserable reality, this is clearly not an easy listen. Fans of ultra-doom misery, however, will love the suffocating dense groove of what could well be a talented man’s swansong.
