BACKBONE formed in Warsaw, Poland in 2012. Playing Doom Metal mixed with elements of Post Rock and small flavors of Prog, Ambient and Death metal. In 2015 the band released their first EP "Omega Wave", which was supported by several gigs. The band went on a three-year long hiatus after this period, reemerging again in 2019 and with a new lineup. Since that event, most of the time was spent on composing and recording the new EP "Grey Foundations of Stone," which was released on January 15, 2021. The album contains four tracks.

"Cathedral" leads off the album. It's an eight-minute beast, opening with a heavy, plundering sound, and raging vocals. The sound then drops to just clean guitars, and some ambient tones. It picks back up with clean vocals and some dissonance, followed by thick bass guitars and a bit of melody. The harsh vocals make a return and there is a long fade-out. "Forest of Twilight" is another heavy and slow moving track, with harsh vocals. It rides this line until close to the end of the song, where some melody comes from the clean guitars.

"Spectral Blue Noon" is a shorter song, beginning with some hushed tones. It begins a slow build with the addition of bass guitar thuds and some feedback from the guitars. I really like the atmosphere here. "Grey Foundations of Stone" closes the EP, at just under ten-minutes in length. It begins with more of that slow, heavy and lumbering sound, with harsh vocals. Some Progressive elements come into play in this song as well, with a change in the meter. As we approach the half-way mark, come clean guitars come into play, but are short lived. Powerful, big strikes take over, then it's back to another ambient passage. Closing in towards the end, the clean vocals harmonize nicely with the harsh vocals. The song is constantly shifting in and out of harsh passages with ambient passage, with well-timed transitions.

Overall, although four tracks aren't really enough to take a deep dive into an album, I feel like the band was able to get their message and sound across pretty easily. At its core, it sounds like Doom Metal to me, but the ambient passages and Progressive elements greatly enhance the music. They have created something unique here, that would appeal to a wide variety of Metalheads, in my opinion. Don't fall asleep on this band, because if they release a full-length soon, it could be a real banger!