Ascending Into Shimmering Darkness is the second full length of the English band Coltsblood: the album was released by Candlelight about a year ago, but the vinyl re-release by Black Bow gives us the opportunity to refresh the memory of doom fans. The Liverpool trio offer a sludge closely related to funeral that best captures the feeling of emptiness and dismay inherent in the genre: fifty minutes for five tracks is the usual rate that bands working in this field often apply, almost always with excellent results as in this case. Ascending Into Shimmering Darkness is a beautiful work, which has the merit of proceeding with an emotional crescendo that sees a start more prone to sludge with the title track (a song already published in the split with Horse Latitudes and Ommadon in 2014), and then reach the final The Final Winter, where a funeral component predominates with great intensity. All this happens through harsher tracks like Mortal Wound and The Legend Of Abhartach and the relatively more melodic Ever Decreasing Circles, especially for the excellent work of guitarist Jem; for her part, her husband John afflicts the listeners with his growl, forming with drummer Jay a rhythmic base that stands out more for its dynamism, as mentioned, in the first part of the work. It’s really worth, then, to make this ascent towards a sparkling darkness, and those who love both the doom and the evergreen vinyl format, should not miss the opportunity to make their own the last work of a band perhaps so far little known but really thick, as well as composed of musicians with great sensitivity.

2017 – Candlelight Records 2018 – Black Bow Records