foothills - Ingress Review
Another Sydney doom release. You might think that with the sheer abundance of incredible bands putting music out at the moment. Maybe it was the two years under the rotten foot of this pandemic, locked indoors & no shows to go to. Or maybe it’s just simply because we live in a great time where the Australian metal community at large is thriving. Whatever the reason is, Sydney’s scene is currently crushing it with a stack of great venues like Hiway bar, Moshpit Bar or The Vanguard (just to name a few) having regular shows again. If you’ve been to a show recently there’s a good chance you’ve gotten in early and seen Foothills.
Foothills are a four piece death doom band from deep in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney. A place not known to have a deep bench of bands let alone heavy bands. Until now.
Having released two singles off Ingress this year, ‘Ent King’ & ‘Crow Keeper’ have set the standard for what’s to come. The only taste of other music we’ve all had was live shows. Having seen and shot Foothills more than once now, feeling the energy of a room when these mystery songs get played is something that doesn’t come around often. You can tell something truly magical is happening when a room full of people are all head-banging, cod facing, or much like myself stand there with a big dumb ass grin on my face to music they’ve never heard.
Enter ‘Inquisition of the Elders’. This is the track that has that exact magic and features guitarist & vocalist Elliot Smith’s solo vocal assault. Now I can’t stress this enough - you are not ready for how heavy his voice is. The song opens with a big dose of doom riff-age from guitarist Jack Laing before ringing out to let Smith destroy you with the line “The elders retrieve their outstretched hand”. An ominous guitar lurks in the background with drummer ‘Jake Hook’ riding the groove all the way through until both Max & Elliot unleash what has a huge crowd participation moment vibe, ‘I cry out to the elders for answers’, and then it’s time for everyone to receive their yearly serving of neck damage. This track need’s to be played a max volume through whatever delivery method you choose.
When Max first described Foothills to me back in 2020, I believe the quote was something along the lines of “Opeth meets Sabbath” which clearly had my interest piqued and this is where you’ll find that change of pace. Sulphur Titan is an 8 minute slab of everything that makes this genre amazing. Opening with clean guitars that reminded me of something off Pink Floyd’s ‘Dark Side of the Moon’, which further shows the range these guys have. The vocals here from Max Steel are haunting & utterly enchanting. Like being lead into a misty forest on your next Dungeons and Dragons raid, everything’s seemingly calm. You fall into the groove and let it take you away, before the forest starts to slowly burn and A Zaratan shakes the very earth you stand on. The band drops back in with huge riffs and vocal passages that lead this epic ending track through all it’s hi’s and low’s before finishing almost the same way as it started.
Final mentions to the ep artwork for Ingress by the incredible Greallach. If there’s one downside to this ep it’s the fact it does not go for another at least 6 tracks. Hopefully it’s not too long before we see it in physical format, because this will be vinyl I’d kill for.
Track list for Ingress below
‘Crow Keeper’
2. ‘Ent King
3. ‘Inquisition of the Elders’
4. ‘Sulphur Titan’Catch Foothills along with Celestial Oath at the Duke of Enmore on Sunday the 31st of July. Put on by the legend Your Mate Bookings
Photo by James Gough
