Grey Daturas / Monarch

***Two respected underground heavyweights pair up on Dawn Of The Catalyst. Australia’s GREY DATURAS have built a solid following over the last few years through constant touring worldwide with artists like Neurosis, Wolf Eyes and Yellow Swans (having also released splits with the latter two). Their combination of Sonic Youth-style guitar-improv freakouts with more detuned doomed ambience and all out noise has attracted fans from all dank corners of underground music. France’s female-fronted MONARCH is that country’s entry into the slo-mo nihilistic utterly oppressive doom genre where they’ve distinguished themselves from their peers in both sound and aesthetics. On Dawn Of The Catalyst each band contributes one extended track, both veering to the more experimental, droning, lurching side of their collective personas. A split to be felt more than simply heard, it requires full volume and full bass frequencies for maximum effect. (STREET DATE - 10/02/2007)