There's a lot of devastating Metal coming out of Poland lately. One of the heaviest is 71 TONMAN from Warsaw who deliver a gargantuan payload of sonic entropy with their latest release. Following on the heels of their 2021 EP, "War is Peace // Peace is Slavery," their third full-length album, "Of End Times," is due out from Transcending Obscurity Records on March 3, 2023. (Metal bands always with the numbers: 03.03.23.)

Listening to the album, I was reminded of Patricia Highsmith's 1967 short story, "The Quest for 'Blank Claveringi.'" In the story, a researcher is hunted down by giant snails on a remote, uninhabited island. To be clear, these are massive snails with teeth. And like all snails, they move laboriously slow. Their persistence, and the fact that there isn't anywhere to run, work to their advantage and they eventually get their prey. The horror of the story, because it is most certainly a horror story, is the excruciatingly slow pace of the inevitable. That and the delivery mechanism are slimy, gargantuan gastropods with fucking choppers and an appetite for human flesh.

Anyway, my point is "Of End Times" with its four, massive tracks spanning about 10 minutes each with a bpm lower than shit that is low, will in the end find you and devour you . . . slowly. As the title would suggest, thematically the album centers on the downfall of civilization. Although Biblical in its doomsaying, the tracks deviate from the traditional Book of Revelation version swapping out death for plague. If I had to pick two best tracks, I'd go with "Conquest" for orchestration of several movements, and "War" for its dread infused atmosphere.

The cover art, I presume by SNDNBCK who did the cover of their 2021 EP, depicts a ghastly shrouded figure clutching a picture of a collapsing cityscape framed by barbed wire. No horseman. No color even. Just a monochrome scale of muted black and fetid white. It's a perfect depiction of what is conveyed in the music.
For fans of Sludge/Doom, this is an easy decision. Just check out the album already. I mean, no rush or anything-because if you are into Sludge, there is never any rush-but this is a nice slab of sludge.