WINDHAND - Live at Roadburn GOLD VINYL Limited to 100 - COUGH Kadavar Elder Yob

$

69

Windhand ?– Live At Roadburn 2014

GOLD VINYL - Limited Edition - Only 100 Made

Recorded live at The Roadburn Festival 2014 in Tilburg, The Netherlands.
Roadburn Records ?– RBR037

Tracklist:
A1     Orchard     6:45
A2     Woodbine     9:47
A3     Feral Bones     6:43
B1     Winter Sun     7:29
B2     Cassock     9:33

If you’ve not heard of Richmond, Virginia’s Windhand then you’ve probably been living under a rock for the last three years. From an intriguing practice space demo to last year’s critically acclaimed Soma (their second album), Windhand have literally had the wind beneath their wings, lifting them to the lofty heights of doom stardom in a very short space of time, landing them international tours, multiple represses of their records and a split with fellow Virginian doom legends Cough along the way. And last year it even took them to sludge and doom’s most hallowed grounds, Roadburn Festival, where this vinyl-exclusive set was recorded live on the Main Stage to a packed crowd of evidently enthusiastic festival-goers.

What got Windhand to this point (if you didn’t know) is their infectious combination of simple Sabbathian riffs and singer Dorthia Cottrell’s catchy vocal melodies, and while their take on doom has never been an innovative one, it is quintessentially pleasing nonetheless. The guitar tone, the pace, the occult imagery, and the hooks all combine to eradicate the need to intellectualise their music, and instead makes you want to light up a big fat doobie and nod your head to it. Dorthia’s vocals have an air of mystery about them; throaty and buried deep in the mix, they are simultaneously cloaked and omnipresent – never quite audible enough to be the driving force of the band’s songs but never entrenched to the point of being secondary.

Thankfully, Dorthia’s vocals are significantly higher in the mix on Live at Roadburn 2014 than they are on Windhand‘s studio recordings (where they are intentionally buried below the guitars). This is a welcome change and for once her powerful voice is given centre stage placement where it belongs. The band rip through text-book renditions of five of the six songs on Soma (more on that later), including a mighty version of Orchard with that huge, bouncy riff and Ryan Wolfe’s clattering drum fills, as well as an epic version of Boleskin to finish off the set. What is abundantly clear pretty much straight away is that these guys are tight, having toured fairly relentlessly for the last few years, and it’s a breathtaking performance all round.