Album Review: Golden Core - Fimbultýr 8.5 (Stoner Doom)

Golden Core
Fimbultýr
Progressive Stoner Doom
Norway
November 1st, 2019
8.5/10

Fimbultýr is a dazzling lofi blend of stoner doom, hardcore, death rock and a bunch of stuff. It’s an incredible work that hits just right on the mixing it’s an older more analogue sounding fuzz that never sounds dated. It’s very much the Electric Wizard school of doom and it’s of the highest grade. There’s also grunge and post rock elements that are used effectively, making Fimbultyr an overall engrossing record that should not be overlooked by doomers looking for a harsher longer buzz.

Golden Core blow all of that overproduced washed out High On Fire shit out of the water with their punk rock approach to stoner doom. It reminds me of the darkest and noisest moments from some of Psychic TV’s work, especially Heaven Is Invisible, Hell Is Here. There’s Melvins vibes as well with how the riffs tumble and progress, also it’s just fucking grimy af. It’s also somehow in an oxymoronic way delivered with finesse and a sense of mysticism that’s a core element of stoner doom, but also crossing over into post hardcore in interesting ways brings to mind fond memories of Darkness Oh Hell era Trophy Scars. I could honestly name a shit load of hardcore and grunge that I can hear in this album but it never feels like the point. It never stops being a stoner doom album.

Just when you think you’ve caught the full range and depth of this intriguing album it spins everything around to churn out some emotionally devastating passages. The last half of the album has some huge tracks that pay off the build up immensely, I really dig the energy and sincerity in the vocals throughout the album. It’s always key for a doom album to have an upswing towards the end or second half and that has clearly been considered here as the flow of the tracks kept me curious for the entirety of the journey.

There’s a lot of clean guitarwork in the end that isn’t boring or typical but was actually an interesting tune involving a lot of natural harmonics and delay. I get the sense that these musicians could put together a very capable and subtle post rock album if they wanted to, or even a math rock band. It feels like a natural part of their skill set rather than a gimmick tacked on to give contrast to the music.

Pretty much any fault I can find is made up for in charm and spirit, it’s a fantastic record. It’s a very unique album that embodies a lot of stimulating forms of music but always a true-to-its-name progressive stoner metal album.