Daily Jam - The Albatross

In 2000, somehow, someway, neo-psychedelic indie rock band Elf Power managed to record a song that heralds the arrival of the end of everything more effectively than a thousand doom metal bands. How they did it is beyond me, but “The Albatross,” the epic and thundering closing track from the band’s The Winter Is Coming is my go-to for that sort of thing, a hallmark of doom-laden guitar rock.

Beginning with a bubbling up of heavily distorted and menacing guitar fuzz, the song sounds like an awakening golem, guitar riffs and drums chugging forward, then progressing into a thick and swampy trudge, stars falling from the sky, the allegorical sea bird of the title following slowly at a distance behind, an ever-present omen. The noise and feedback increase, static hum and shaking, quivering amplifiers, the sound of encroaching dread and cursed fortunes, before it all fades into one long and extending ominous tone, the wind picking up and blowing all of the ashes away forever.

Scorched earth. Charred remains. And then…poof…it’s all gone.

Listen below, our Daily Jam.