Stuff I'm Digging: Windhand

I'm starting a new thing. Stuff I’m Digging is just a way to talk to you guys about something I’m enjoying at the moment. This might be guitar-related, or music-related, or it might just something cool that I like and want to share.

Windhand

I don’t remember how I found Windhand but, sometime in the last year or two, I came across their album Soma on Bandcamp.

Hooked.

Wonderful, fat, doom riffs—oh the noises. Great, big old doom bass and drums pumping things forward like a marching army of monsters.

And over it all, drifting—barely—above the brilliant doomy din is vocalist, Dorthia Cottrell’s voice. And that’s the differentiator here. I love a good doom-laden riff-fest as much as the next guy but the vocals let Windhand stand a little clear of the pack.

Soma got quite a few plays here in Haze Towers.

And now there’s a new album.

Grief’s Infernal Flower is Windhand’s latest release. It’s true to their roots (I’m happy that I can still hear some Sabbath creeping out) but there seems to be some evolution too. Despite the fact that there are two quarter-hour long tracks here, this album feels a little less indulgent. I sniff some production guidance.

Cottrell’s vocals are a little more forward too. They’ve still got a bit of distance to give them that ethereal thing but they don’t get lost here.

To sum up: Windhand. Check ‘em out.

I bought both Soma and Grief’s Infernal Flower from Bandcamp but they’re available elsewhere too.