Tales of haunted spaces, tortured victims, murderous vengeance and other sordid acts/scorned actors better left in the past steam from the heated suburban minds of Adelaide, South Australian psychedelic/stoner doom metal trio Rocky’s Pride & Joy as their debut album regales its nightmares in creeping-aloud and burning fuzz. All tubes a-bursting, all drums stalking apace beneath a ghostly orator, ‘All the Colours of Darkness‘ is the kind of slick-yet-organic psychedelic stoner/doom metal hi-fi/lo-mood you’ve likely heard before but you haven’t heard this one, at least in the sense that their songwriting and their fucked storytelling has its own clever hook to it at every turn. An undeniable thread and a gloomy slow ride that wears its post-millennium stoner doom metal bulldozer sound proudly like a chain.

They lived in a haunted cottage, and it drove them to… doom?! Rocky’s Pride and Joy formed circa mid-2020 and it seems they’d spent the pandemic era writing songs musing over their own idea for a fuzz-fed doom metal project. Three folks started a metal band, did the thing (Sabbath groove) and played some gigs once they had songs, easy as. So, the interesting precedence for this record comes quick with the digital only single “Times Up“, a piece which didn’t end up on the LP and which features a more oaken and wiry traditional doom metal hustle to its step. It is a massive song and a mystery in terms of quick and easy impact on a first impression but as we’ll find they’d been searching for consistency of performance and render and that’d been one of their earlier runs at it. Another digital only single (“Future Self“) reveals this, still bearing some of that oaken stoner lurch in its movement but in a widened space and a different tone from vocalist/guitarist Brenton, this time showing far more tact in a more elaborate melody. You’d think they were going full stoner metal to start but the bluesy doom rock feel of it was there as well. All of these aspects are still in the pot on ‘All the Colours of Darkness‘ but given to a bigger, heavier and (as a result) more surreal sound.

When I say “post-millennium” stoner/doom metal I’m more-or-less suggesting the lasting inspiration of Electric Wizard still does not yet have its true usurper, and that reference remains categorical unto itself despite meaning several different things and bearing its own set of niche offshoots. That is to say that Rocky’s Pride and Joy have a big, fuzz-boosted and bass heavy production sound/design which hits just hard enough to impose but nothing on a truly nuclear level (a la Monolord‘s still untouchable ‘V​æ​nir‘). There is just enough of a rounded edge to their guitar tone that it won’t scorch the stoner rock mood but it is enough of a live wire that a fan of post-2011 The Wounded Kings will enjoy the gloom generated in tandem with the vocalist’s distant but not out of the picture vocals. The obvious reference for the average fuzz-doom ear is probably Windhand but only as we take the first step down their cellar of unearthed cruelties with opener “Red Altar” where we see the bloody handprints all over the pulpit, the robes, and such. In fact this is probably the finest point of these folks’ work to make up front, the conceptual nature of their lyrics deal with due revenge for injustice past, comeuppance and the lingering effect that depraved acts have on haunted spaces. Their slow walk through cursed and contaminated souls is the major appeal beyond the norm per my own taste, at least.

Accept that death is in the details, morbidity a sign of intellect. — With care enough put into their songcraft, a few steps well beyond the norm, the major focus is shared between developing a menacing cadence within relatively straightforward doom metal riffcraft, the first couple minutes of “So Said the Roach” giving a clear enough idea of where they’re coming from in terms of compositional simplicity but always within a point of progression that has been developed well beyond basic forms. There is nothing awfully blunt or careless about Rocky’s Pride and Joy work in that sense and I’d found myself appreciating the details while still enjoying the amount of air they push with the pedal-boosted heft of their sound.

“Crawl” is one of the earlier songs the band’d written back in 2020 though it doesn’t echo the occult rock bump of “Times Up”, bluesy harmonized leads nonetheless lend a certain traditional doom metal lilt to the piece as it plays out beyond the barking and psych’d distance of the vocals. This is the point on the full listen where it became clear the whole of ‘All the Colours of Darkness‘ is a contained thread, an elaborate meditation in and of itself wherein the step into the very Windhand-feelin’ buzz of “Tunnel Vision” felt downstream of each idea that came before it. The flow from moment to moment on this record all works as a pleasurable bout of continuity even if their way of filling the space between aims for simpler efficacy and well-trodden paths much of the time. For my taste this step into Side B is about as deep as I’d tend to get into their lagoon before the urge to whip back to the start of the first half. That isn’t to say that “Your Hell” isn’t a big song on the record but that I’d felt the band had well-enough stated their verve beyond the half hour mark and “Lucifer’s Lullaby” didn’t do much for the momentum of the spin.

I suppose a walk through a ghost town would be different if you saw dead people, eh. That’d been the vibe I’d gotten sitting with this record, that they’d been spooked and inspired to write this level of gloomin’ hard and heavier fuzzed-at psychedelic/stoner doom metal for the sake of a certain surreal feeling, a feeling which is well enough evoked by the abandoned house on the cover photo. A not-so deserted headspace, uninhabitable in the light of day but alluring per the creeped-out darkness behind the windows. The feeling is well conveyed and the pace steady and readable throughout to the point that Rocky’s Pride and Joy did eventually win me over. By way of an easy attitude on the surface and a terrifying morbid obsession beneath the confident march of this debut leaves little room for error going forward, the fidelity being this sharp and the songcraft being this damned steady leaves a hundred tripwires ahead but I think they’re capable of something even more unique and tuneful based on the attention they’ve given this first haunt. A high recommendation.

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