The tracks, in order, are:
Mos Generator - The Sword of the Sea
Messa - Serpent Libido
Vokonis - Runa
Slomatics - Jaeger
None of those bands are household names, but each of their four tunes here are top-caliber. Which is my favorite of the four? Today it’s the plodding “Jaeger,” with lyrics that are possibly about giant Pacific Rim battlemechs(?), but yesterday it was “Serpent Libido,” with the infectious, “Snowblind”-esque guitars and Sara’s shiver-inducing vocals. The day before that was “Sword of the Sea,” with its epic opening and quiet ending, leading to the Doomy coda. Tomorrow it will be “Runa,” for its Pepper Keenan guitar crunch.
I love that they each represent different vocal styles, with female vocals in one, Conan-esque bellowing in another, Lee Dorrian-esque atonal roars in another, and clean, high iron in another. The guitars and basses are as mud-coated as a battlefield after rain, but there’s also a nice diversity of tones and playing styles, with some acoustic sections.
The film appears to be a modern animated update on the template established by the cult classic, “Heavy Metal,” based on the pulp comic magazine. That movie featured a killer soundtrack that included Sammy Hagar, Dio-era Black Sabbath, and more. This one appears to be digging deeper underground, and adhering more to the Doom sub-genre. The two flicks are unrelated, as far as I can tell, but comparisons between the two will undoubtedly be plenty.
Check out the Planet Doom website for more about the film, but also dig into the four-song teaser soundtrack EP. I hope to hear more from each of the artists represented here, in the late 2010s Doom renaissance.
