Usnea, Mesnea, We All Scream for Usnea

Last month we introduced you to Usnea, a Portland-based band who, despite the questionable pronunciation of their name, bring the doom in a serious way.

Rare is the doom band that can ratchet up the intensity, dial it back, and do both in a way that doesn’t sacrifice the overall integrity of the song by just stringing together parts that sound cool on their own. But Usnea understand what it takes to write a memorable song, and I’m way into it. Sure, “Random Cosmic Violence” — which made its debut yesterday on No Clean Singing — could end around the 7:30 mark and just be done with it, but the band brings back musical themes from its first section later in the song to bring everything full circle, making the whole thing worth the wait. It seems like such an elemental concept, yet few bands who write 14-minute songs do it right.

Check out “Random Cosmic Violence” below, and listen to another song called “Healing Through Death” that came out in September. Random Cosmic Violence comes out on November 10th via Relapse Records and can be pre-ordered here.