Inter Arma might just be the sludgy saviors of doom metal. The VA-based band serves up tracks that are not just heavy, plodding metal licks, but instead offers dynamic, quaking aural-scapes that reveal a world of more merciless gods. "Transfiguration," a 9-minute stand-out track off the band’s latest release, Paradise Gallows, is operatic in scope–utilizing guitar sweeps that echo the glissandos Mussgorsky used on "Night On Bald Mountain" to conjure demons–and threatens to place the listener into the desperate throes depicted on the album cover. The sonic imagery is so trenchant that it’s easy to feel gripped by the terror of being ensnared by a mighty, black sea. For metalheads, Inter Arma is a band to watch, and Paradise Gallows is a staggering juggernaut of an introduction. Check them out streaming below.-Olivia Sisinni
