Spider Kitten – Behold Mountain. Hail Sea. Venerate Sky. Bow Before Tree. CD (Undergroove Records)
Just the three tracks but Cardiff’s finest purveyors of sludgy doom make them count and with the added bonus of the presence of Stuart O\’Hara (Acrimony, Iron Monkey, Blackeyeriot and Sigiriya) who bangs out a quality solo on opening track \’Lindisfarena\’, and Charlotte Nichols (Crippled Black Phoenix) who adds some delicate, atmospheric cello to the impressive closing track \’Gore Swan\’, this is without a doubt one slab of heaviness fans of the genre will want to check out. Allegedly these three songs were only jammed once before the band headed in to the studio to record them; how true that is I don’t know, but there’s no doubting the quality of the songs and musicianship here. For fans of the Melvins, CBP and The Sword. Ian Pickens