★★★★★
"Windhand could have elevated their status with 'Soma,' but instead flounder with half-baked ideas and a closer that drags on." Windhand's self-titled debut, which came out only about a year or so ago, was a positive start for the doom metal group. Their music was capsulated in darkness, with only a hazy stoner fog breaking through. Powerful and raw, Windhand was setting themselves up for an even-bigger sophomore album...
- www.metalunderground.com
2013-10-19
★★★★★
Soma shows all the signs of an attempted slow metal classic: On their second album and first for Relapse, Richmond, Va., quintet Windhand coughs up three low-tempo burners, follows them with a foreboding acoustic creak, and aims to end with its longest and strongest-- a 14-minute rumbling insurgency called "Cassock" and the 31-minute astro fade "Boleskin". The record spotlights every asset of the band, too...
- pitchfork.com
2013-09-25
★★★★★
Chiselling space for itself between occult rock and doom metal, the second full-length from Richmond, VA's Windhand is defined by spooky confidence and granite heaviness. The riffs possess millstone weight, grinding steadily and smoothly through each of the six thick, looping tracks. The tone on is as deep and rich as blackstrap molasses, slowly oozing through the cavernous grooves and slow evolution of each song...
- exclaim.ca
2013-09-18
★★★★★
Before ever having actually heard Windhand, I stumbled across an ad for their first release, a self-titled released on a label called Force Field. What happened next seldom happens to me, if ever at all. I was instantly driven to order it, sound unheard, based on album art alone. I'm not usually that impulse driven, but there was just something about their spectral white logo (unfortunately omitted from gracing this album cover), floating over a shot of some dilapidated house (a la Black...
- www.popmatters.com
2013-09-16