IAMTHETHORN

Hamilton’s Goodfellow Records may have started a new trend in hardcore bands going doom. Last year saw the Abominable Iron Sloth rise from several bored members of Will Haven, and now Iamthethorn join the club with their debut EP, the five-song You Are the Lamb. Himsa vocalist Johnny Pettibone and Grievous guitarist Aaron Edge once played together in the short-lived straightedge band Genuine, but this project stresses adherence to sludge from this depraved mob of Eyehategod acolytes. Kicking it old-style like debut-era Cathedral, opener "Becoming Death” also runs the tune through tinny effects (like the intro to Obituary’s "Solid State”) before driving home the full gravity. Pettibone’s caustic delivery here is reminiscent of Pepper Keenan on Corrosion of Conformity’s "Vote with a Bullet.” The Hawg Jaw-dropping "As the Night Rises” invites swampier grooves alongside Pettibone’s throat shredding, this time evoking Coalesce’s Sean Ingram. "Cutman” sounds like old Yob minus the superfluous psychedelia, with a succinct Goatsnake chug and a My Dying Bride-like outro, while the crusty "Crawling Over Them” pits -16- against Cathedral in a slugfest for extra distortion. The outstanding video for the sludge-fuelled hardcore of "The Hunt and Beyond” nails the band’s powerful vision of creepiness while advancing the doom genre with a no-nonsense addition. With any luck, You Are the Lamb will be merely a teaser for further IATT degeneracy.