FLOOR — Dove (review)

FLOOR — Dove album cover Album · 2004 · Sludge Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4.5/5 ·
Unitron
With doom metal and it's sludge and stoner brethren being pretty underrated to begin with, there's bound to be amazing bands that get forgotten about even among the genre's cult following. One of these bands is the Floridian band Floor, who just so happens to mix doom, sludge, and stoner all into one.

While their self-titled debut album was released in 2002, the band has been around since 1992. While most of their recordings before '02 were singles and splits, they did record Dove in 1994. For whatever reason the album wasn't released until a decade later in 2004, the year the band broke up, only to reform in 2010.

Dove is one of the heaviest albums I've ever heard, yet features no bass. It's hard to believe, but all of the distortion, feedback, and crushing brutality is just completely brought by guitars and drums. The opening two tracks "Who Are You" and "Namaste" are short but destructive rampaging blasts of sludgy chaos, which feature screeching feedback alongside Sabbath-esque riffing that is cranked up to 11. This is followed and perfectly contrasted with my favorite on the album, the more laidback "In a Day". This track has more of a stoner vibe, but not without more high-pitched distortion breaking in from time to time in the song. The main guitar riff sounds incredibly close to a bass with a distortion pedal, but it's not, surprisingly. "Figure It Out" also mixes some stoner elements, and Steve Brooks' vocal style on these two tracks really contribute to the overall stoner feel.

Most of the doom metal is saved for the end of the album, which would contain "Floyd", the title track, and "I Remember Nothing" (Which is omitted on the vinyl version). All three of these tracks kind of blend together, with "Floyd" being the most enjoyable of them. The title track could be an almost perfect eighteen-minute behemoth of sludgy dirges, but it ruined by wasting probably about ten of those minutes. For the first eight-minutes, it slowly crushes your skull with pure force, and if it was just that it would be perfect for when you're in the mood for slow and meandering doom. However, it ends with random annoying talking, which I always find annoying when it appears, as well as just incoherent feedback and drone. The end of the title track pretty much sums up "I Remember Nothing", and unfortunately that title fits pretty well.

Despite the album's shortcomings with the final two lengthy tracks, Dove is a masterpiece of doom/sludge metal. If you love screeching distortion and feedback and crushingly brutal slabs of riffs, Floor is up there with the best and is definitely an essential listen. Hope you found this review helpful, feel free to comment!
Share this review

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
aglasshouse wrote:
more than 2 years ago
This man speaks the truth.

MMA TOP 5 Metal ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
Master of Puppets Thrash Metal
METALLICA
Buy this album from our partners
Paranoid Heavy Metal
BLACK SABBATH
Buy this album from our partners
Moving Pictures Hard Rock
RUSH
Buy this album from our partners
Powerslave NWoBHM
IRON MAIDEN
Buy this album from our partners
Rising Heavy Metal
RAINBOW
Buy this album from our partners

New Metal Artists

New Metal Releases

Everything Hurts And I'm Dying Atmospheric Sludge Metal
NEGATIVE BLISS
Buy this album from MMA partners
L'impôt du sang Melodic Black Metal
CONIFÈRE
Buy this album from MMA partners
Pleroma Progressive Metal
ORGONE
Buy this album from MMA partners
n​ê​bam​Ω​ejn Atmospheric Black Metal
TRHÄ
Buy this album from MMA partners
∫um'ad​∂​ejja cavvaj Atmospheric Black Metal
TRHÄ
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Metal Online Videos

More videos

New MMA Metal Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Metal News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us