The young label from Olympia, WA, 20 Buck Spin, surprised me before with their extreme groovy death metal from Japan Coffins and now they have done it again with an obscure drone/doom act Pussygutt. With the moniker like this one could have expected some “scream bloody gore”, yet Pussygutt lays down some of the most profound and somber music I have heard in a while. And they do it with only bass and drums, as well as low frequency manipulations and violins making an appearance about half way into this one monstrous 45 min long track.

My feeble mind is separating this work by Brittany McConnell and Blake Green (who reside in the remote location outside of Boise, Idaho) into roughly three parts-movements. At first, we have the climbing wave of distortion periodically crushing, almost in relief, releasing lower sonic frequencies and waves of flickering cymbals. Throughout all this the melody is there, only it is crawling somewhere so deep and so slowly, you have to make an effort to uncover its inevitable tidal wave. Later, things climb deeper, if that was possible, into a crusty dungeon, from which eventually violins pull out this giant, turning the track into one pensive crusher, which is both classical music and funeral doom in approach. Regardless of the description you pick, in repeating its violin motions, She Hid Behind Her Veil … will suck the joy of life out of you until the last dying vibrating detuned violin melodies disappear.

SunnO))) comparisons clearly can be made, but She Hid Behind Her Veil … is more than pure amplifier worship. A few other reference points which came to mind are Asunder and Nadja, but the latter is electrically sizzling drone, while Pussygutt on this album ventures into the funeral drone territory, if there is such a thing. If not, well, I just invented a genre.

This foreboding extreme music is obviously not for everybody, but if you think today is the last day on Earth and the sun will not rise tomorrow, sample She Hid Behind Her Veil … as this requiem will provide you with both soothing and crushing way on the way to the void.