Single Review: The Black Bison – The Wendigo
Reviewed by Julian Pepper
Kent based The Black Bison formed in the middle of 2021 and have just released their debut single 'The Wendigo' which is named after an evil spirit in Native American mythology who enjoys dining on human flesh!
The four-piece consisting of Wolf (vocals), Adam (bass), Alexi (guitar) and Maz (drums) made their live debut with a great set at Sarcomafest back in September of last year, so it’s great to finally hear some recorded output from them.
The Black Bison brand their style of metal as “Desert Doom” due to its mix of heavy, sludgy riffs with coatings of doom, powerfully heavy basslines, hard hitting drums and angry vocals. Having listened to the single a few times and seen them live I can confirm that this is an apt description!
'The Wendigo' starts with a brief spoken intro that gives way to a wall of feedback before a clean vocal and fuzzy riff attack ensues. This is definitely doom metal territory and as the chorus, “Devour them all!”, kicks in Wolfs vocals become gruffer and remain so throughout the remainder of the song!
The heavy guitar is definitely at the front of the mix all the way through but not to the detriment of the sludgy bass and thumping drum backbeat. The song is centred around a hypnotically slow and heavy riff courtesy of Alexi that crawls through the song much like the Wendigo would no doubt do itself when on the hunt!
As debut singles go, this is a pretty good start and bodes well for the future. Let’s hope we get to hear more from the band soon.
The Black Bison have already announced a few gigs in 2023 so get along and check them out for yourselves.
