free download! the debut ep from doom metal band vodun is explosive raw and heavy. #soundcheck

Metal has always had a fixation on the mystical and magical. From the occult and demonic fixation of doom metal to the D&D Monster Manual of power metal. The fierce low guitar, thundering drums, and classical technicality convey something larger than life, something more epic than ordinary reality. So it makes perfect sense that UK based Vodun would base their music around West African Vodun rituals and Loa (Haitian elemental spirits).

Building from a static burst of noise into a vocal sample about the powers granted to a woman by Voodoo into a grimy take on Afro-Cuban percussion before lurching into a doomy sludge pit, opening track “Eat Up The Sun” highlights Vodun’s diversity. This isn’t your grandmother’s doom metal. Vodun pulls from a set of influences much wider than just those first few Sabbath records. The songs are short and fast, and while Oya’s vocals have no shortage of intensity, they’re cleaner and more melodic.
It’s rare that the best songs from a band this heavy are their shortest, but “Aida Wedo” and “Red Flag” have a ferocity, rawness, and directness that’s often missing from music this technical. Which isn’t to say that guitarist Ghede can’t shred. He can. (And does pretty epically on “Erzulie”) He’s just the rare metal guitarist who knows when to hold back and when to destroy. And when Vodun destroys, they leave nothing in their wake.
The EP is available through the music player above as a free download.

– Words by Nathan Leigh