Yob – “Our Raw Heart”
Oregon power trio Yob is one of the finest doom-metal bands on the face of the planet. And next month, they’ll follow up 2014’s towering Clearing The Path To Ascend with the new album Our Raw Heart. Frontman Mike Scheidt began writing the album while recovering from a case of acute diverticulitis that almost killed him, and based on what I’ve already heard from the album, that lends a purposeful and maybe even a spiritual edge to the music of a band that was already plenty powerful.
After sharing a video for the album track “The Screen,” Yob have now allowed the world to hear the new album’s title track. It is a monster. “Our Raw Heart” spans 14 and a half minutes. And rather than opening quiet and building into a surging storm, “Our Raw Heart” is heavy from the very beginning, riding a series of bottom-heavy, hard-stomping riffs.
This is glorious stoner music, rhythmic and repetitive and intense. But it’s also grand and searching. Scheidt’s vocals have a yearning-for-transcendence quality that I’ve never heard before. And the band seems less intent on showing off its considerable proggy chops, more consumed with creating a glowing feeling. Check the song out below, via Noisey.
Our Raw Heart is out 6/18 on Relapse.