Season of Arrows-Give it to the Mountain

Argonauta Records
2017

Formed in January of 2014, Season of Arrows is a on-the-rise Nashville, Tennessee (sludgy) doom/stoner metal band that is lead as always by versatile lead singer Stormie Wakefield. The full-length album "Give it to the Mountain" is this heavy & fuzzed-over group's long-anticipated sophomore recording and it is tentatively scheduled for release on March 24, 2017. Having previously reviewed the group's 2014 self-titled debut (here's the link), Season of Arrows had me under their spell from the word go. That had everything to do with the smoky voice of Stormie Wakefield* and the ever so cool way in which this intriguing band skillfully touched up what was already a sincerely potent brand of stoner rock/doom metal. Universally praised by critics and fans from all over the globe, "Season of Arrows" not only put this five-piece band on the map, but it apparently set a count down meter on a metallic bomb that is due to go with a big BANG come late March of 2017! For you see, while "Season of Arrows" was a damn good album in it's own right (and one that I still recommend highly!) the group's new release is EXPLOSIVE!! Like it's predecessor, Season of Arrows' forthcoming album takes doom metal, sludge rock, and stoner metal in a completely new (and seemingly limitless) direction. Every-bit as earthy and natural as their debut album (and with twice the amount of feedback-worthy fuzz!), "Give it to the Mountain" lulls you into a false sense of security with the opening notes of "Farewell to the Horseman" before it goes completely off the rails and straight down a steep hill to your death and destruction! I can honestly say that I was not expecting such a drastic change in direction (even from a clever band like this) and it really made me look forward to hearing this album in it's entirely. Unfortunately I had to stop after that first time to go and pick up my daughter from a friends house, but even though I knew that change was coming the second time around it didn't make it any less thrilling! The second time proved to be the charm as I listened intently to this doom-laden slab of Tennessee metal. Mind you that was just minutes ago. And now that it just finished up? All I can say is HOLY FUCK! As far as follow-up albums go this one just shreds them all!! By the last few notes of "From the Wilderness We Return" I was exhausted from the onslaught of huge guitar riffs, smashing drums, and the massive amount of bass. Rounded out by Brandon Shepard (guitar), Dave Gates (guitar), Shawn Van Dusen (bass), and Brad Lawson (drums), Season of Arrows is what you get when you back a extremely-talented otherworldly front woman with a equally-skilled lot of musicians from the depths of darkness! Yet again this five-piece band adds in a host of subtle flavors (pretty much everything from seventies hard rock to late sixties psychedelic rock) to their classic mix of doom metal, stoner rock, and sludge metal and the result is nothing short of magnificent! With each new album Stormie Wakefield and her companions continue to improve upon perfection and make their fans proud. All this band needs now is for the rest public to pick up on how sick their sound is and world conquest can't be that far behind!

*If Ozzy Osbourne and Grace Slick had a rebellious, but unfathomably talented love child who was all about 70's psychedelic and cult rock then Stormie would be her name!