Bohren & der Club of Gore
Gore Motel

"It's night, it's raining, it's bohren time."

The Borhen & Der Club Of Gore were formed in 1992 in Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany. They only gained notoriety (or rather the upper echelons of the underground) in 2000, thanks to the album "Sunset Mission". Released after a five-year hiatus, it captivated audiences and critics by offering an intense blend of doom sounds (and funeral doom given the slowness) and jazz elements, with a warm baritone sax drawing evocative melodies, effectively creating the genre Doom Jazz, still alive and prolific today thanks to the works of bands like "The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble" or "The Mount Fuji Doomjazz Corporation" born from B&DCOG.

The point isn't this. But to better delve into their Doom Jazz work, I direct you to this beautiful page: Black Heart.

The point is the type of doom in "Gore Motel".

Released in 1994 by Epistrophy Records (a catalog mainly Hardcore Punk), it encapsulates all the essence of their name. The Germans start from Black Sabbath's "Planet Caravan", remove any vocal presence, and add darkness, heaviness, and extreme dilation.

Doom yes, but Soft Doom, with a clean sound.

A work to which no sunny adjectives can surely be attached, but it's tremendously emotional. Despite being clean, the sounds manage to evoke molten magma, and the slowness makes it oppressive and alienating, yet pleasantly exhaustive. Fascinatingly sick. Some sounds will be revisited in '99 by Mogwai in "Come On Die Young", but with the Scots, we're already at too high a level of happiness.

Just look at the cover, there's absolutely no reason to be happy, you're about to receive a tremendous and annihilating barrage of slaps, but not from just any Steven Seagal, from the thinking brawler, even Chuck Norris took a beating from him, if you know what I mean.

There's absolutely no reason to be happy.

"It's morning, it's sunny, close the curtains, it's bohren time"