I hate to be giving bad reviews to upstart young bands. I am not enjoying coming up with wordsmithing which would demean what certainly was a heartfelt effort. And maybe in the case of the Polish Loathfinder it is the name of their debut EP which simply coincided with my mood. While listening to The Great Tired Ones I was certainly feeling … well, tired.

Blackened doom is not the genre which you delve into easily as depression and visceral heaviness of doom is not always a good match for the passion of black metal. In the genre what strikes me best is either epicness of Hungarian Sear Bliss, recently discovered melodicism and depth of Isenordal or morose and withdrawn atmosphere as Enslaved presented it on Below the Lights. Loathfinder is neither of those things. In fact, in my book they are much closer to pretty average doom death than anything blackened doom. Everything revolves around repetitive samey slow plodding riffs (I guess that is the doom part), with minimum shred of melody, and overlaying horrific vocals (I guess that is the blackened part). There is minimum movement in these four songs, transformation is not allowed, with here and there leadwork trying to poke through the mud. Most prominently what I remember the most when The Great Tired Ones finally stopped playing was slumbering sleepy plod, and then some more if it. The EP was not getting me excited one iota, my mind drifted away completely even before the opener Genetic Gloom was over, and evil vocals trying hard to come up with some pronouncements and proclamations in Feast on My Entrails were of no help. The last two songs I was floating through practically on autopilot, so if there was some better guitarwork on the closing title cut, I’m sorry, plod-plod-plod must have expunged it all. The EP lasts 28 minutes, about the length of my ride to work, and once I got in I reached out for the strongest cup of coffee for the morning not to be a snoozer and shake off the grogginess.