Whilt

Many sludge/doom bands tune their guitars to drop C. Joseph Weller Myer of Whilt goes one step further, playing a bass that evokes the lowest registers of both guitar and bass. “Black Leaves” is a clear reference to marijuana — the kind Satan keeps for himself in a secret stash that Dante, in his darkest dreams, was never allowed to know about. “Aggregate,” meanwhile, has a gritty, slow-boiling atmosphere courtesy of Mike Dread’s Moog. The song’s melodic yet grinding riff (worthy of Sleep’s Dopesmoker), combined with its drum accents, barely reels Whilt back from the abyss of cartoonish heaviness.