SUBROSA (UT) — No Help For The Mighty Ones (review)

SUBROSA (UT) — No Help For The Mighty Ones album cover Album · 2011 · Doom Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
Warthur
Many metal bands include one or two female members, but few have a majority-female lineup - and many of those seem to make a gimmick out of that (either by their own initiative or - as I suspect is more likely - at the prompting of their labels). SubRosa are a welcome exception, presenting a lineup on No Help For the Mighty Ones consisting of three women (including the two band co-founders Rebecca Vernon and Sarah Pendleton) but, in their material and in terms of the marketing, making this seem as though this is the most natural thing in the world rather than a quaint novelty or an opportunity to turn the female band members into eye candy.

Instead, the band offer an intriguing brand of folk-tinged Sabbath-inspired doom metal. Like Blood Ceremony, the band have hit on a way to do the whole stoner 70s revival thing without resorting to rote mimicry of past bands and fruitless ploughing of over-trod furrows by looking at the early 1970s music scenes and thinking "Which musical trends from back in those golden days could have fruitfully crossed over, but didn't?" In the case of Blood Ceremony, it was Sabbathy metal with Jethro Tull-influenced flute prog, whilst SubRosa mash up Sabbath with British folk rock in the tradition of the likes of Fairport Convention, Lindisfarne and Pentangle. The a capella version of the folk standard House Carpenter makes this especially apparent, but the twin violin action (!) of Sarah Pendleton and Kim Pack backing up Rebecca's powerful Tony Iommi riffs give all the tracks on here a unique flavour. It's not an instant classic but it certainly shows a lot of potential, and I look forward to see what they do in the future.
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