Denver-based psychedelic stoner doom collective Green Druid is currently celebrating the release of the trippy debut album “Ashen Blood” testing out sixteen strains of weed for eight weeks which is something they call Weed Olympics and it certainly seems like a lot of fun.
It gets dark early on “Pale Blood Sky” as slow and suffocating rhythmic segments are executed in proper arcane doom fashion with a taste for occult rock flowing through the incredibly thick guitar riffs yet the band crafts obscure melodic moments with atmospheric accents that belong to nightmarish soundscapes.
On “Agoraphobia” the painfully slow rhythm is constantly fueled by an uncompromising lust for darkness and naturally evokes an oppressive mood with evident funeral doom tonalities while a psychedelic streak pervades the atmosphere with essential arcane vibes that will simply enrich the monolithic guitar riffs marching fiercely through the absolutely bleak depths of the band’s doom roots.
The hypnotizing darkness of the lengthy “Cursed Blood” seems endless as it completely fills the raw riffing of the agonizing slow heavy rhythmic patterns and the scattered melodic guitar moments evoking a dreamy contemplative mood yet the stoner rock vibes are often dominant and ready to provide groovier dynamics in the midst of several traditional doom monochromatic sections resulting in a strong mixture that might make you feel stoned.
With doomed majesty “Ritual Sacrifice” feels ominously heavy emerging from some forgotten darkened abyss to deliver a wall of gritty guitar riffs that channel also the cosmic flavors of classic stoner rock and the whole instrumentation is always surrounded by a mystical atmosphere that joins forces with spacey guitar melodies to create a profoundly hazy mood.
With the mysterious aura of “Ashen Blood” Green Druid are clearly not trying to sound trendy and gather a wider audience at all costs, instead they focus on an authentic overdose of stoner doom metal further embellished by surreal atmospheric nuances which prove the band’s genuine devotion for such music genre.