Review by Carcassbomb on October 29, 2021.

I’ve covered a lot of stoner doom on the site, but the genre manages to keep throwing new approaches at me, or new trends in artwork or production. There’s always a fresh take around the corner if you know where to look. Ocultum has a lofi approach to their music that I find really intriguing, with vocals more suited to raw black metal than doom metal. It’s oddly endearing and prevents it from going the same stale route as many other bands currently are, with the wide Mastodon/Gojira vocal styling. There’s something different here, it’s dark and it's anti-marketing in its presence.

Residue is kind of like a gritty metal reboot of the muck monster scenes in Fern Gully, aggressively cheerfully reaching out in all directions. Most of the time there’s a consistent groove but I find indulgence in the moments where they let the groove fall apart into something more chaotic and shambling, revealing the drums slower like the bones on a rotting animated corpse. Sometimes it’s a bassline announcing the beginning of some assault where the groove still is not lost. This could have been serviceable as an instrumental record but the fact they opted for strongly present vocals and also did something different with them, is what really elevates Residue from the slew of similar releases.

The psychedelic elements could have been implemented better in my opinion, some of the choices for periphery sounds or guitar tones are annoying or boring. It’s the only misstep of the release, albeit a major one. I found the darkness more entrancing than the psychedelic aspect, the sludge was on point. The grimier it got the closer I listened.

Overall, I’d recommend giving this one a go just because of how unusual it is. It might not be accessible to many but there will be die hard doom heads who will fall in love with this or find something refreshing here.

Rating: 8 out of 10

Originally written for www.noobheavy.com