(DGR has made a fortunate new discovery, one outside his usual musical wheelhouses, and seeks to spread the word about it in the following review.)

Every year brings a cycle in which I swear up and down to try and expand my musical horizons, which for the most part I absolutely fail at. The early reaches of the year are usually the prime territory for this grand venture to have any hope of success though, because it is somewhat reliable – save for an odd plotting of years wherein January saw a giant flood – that those early parts will have plenty of room for new artists to take a shot at being out there and get some spotlight.

That beginning part of the year is a time of discovery, and every year does have a few interesting acts manage to break through the white noise in comparison to the summer exploraitons of old reliables and groups timing their releases around festival runs. This year, like I have in years past, has had me attempting to explore the doom genre some more, because if there’s any blind spot that I can openly admit to, the fuzzier side of doom is absolutely one of them. These ventures are a lot of fun because you can break past a surface-level understanding of things and actually acheive some sort of musical growth. If nothing else, it provides a new perspective point from which to see things.

The shaggier, fuzzed-out, and stoner side of doom will always have its fair share of oddballs. The walls of reverb and slow to mid tempos must be artistically freeing, and in that respect you do get groups who will name themselves some eyebrow-raising things just for the sheer fun of it. To explore this side of the genre is to be willingly caught off-guard from all ends, and that is how you wind up with a name like Mr. Crabman & The Seaweeds crossing your desk, amplified even more by their home location of the obviously well-known yet clearly easily missed psychadelic doom capital of the world…Finland. Continue reading »