BOTANIST's first release, the double-disk I: The Suicide Tree / II: A Rose From the Dead, caused a stir in the worldwide underground music press, with its fresh twist on the black metal genre via hammered dulcimer, drums, and voice garnering it a place on no fewer than 10 noteworthy best-of-2011 lists (such as NPR, MetalSucks, Pitchfork, and Metal Injection). This new release is an album made with a mind full of doom. The aptly titled III: Doom in Bloom's long-format songs, hard-hitting drums, and aggro-acoustic music take the sound into new territory. Heavier, more plodding, more deliberate, while still retaining the musical focus on drums and dulcimer.
Also included with the album is the bonus / companion disk Allies, made up of songs made by friends of BOTANIST to drums from the III: Doom in Bloom session, providing a kind of tribute / covers / alternate reality to the BOTANIST universe.
Review
If you could handle a further unhinged take on Tiamat's Wildhoney and A Deeper Kind of Slumber, if you dig the kantele meanderings of Nest, or are accustomed to regularly spinning any number of bleakly avant-garde bands of the French and American variety, this could very well become your favourite release this year... or maybe just still not click. It's just like that. The fella behind this band has certainly ensured I'll be keeping tuned in to his future leafy escapades. - Doom Metal 5/5
