Bandcamp Everything about Unteach is steeped in the 70s occult: the lurid orange cover with its horned Baphomet and cavorting cherubs, the “Stereophonic Recording” stamp, the mock parental-advisory sticker in the corner. Oath, from Athens, play traditional doom the way it was meant to sound before anyone worried about digital polish, warm, fuzzed, mid-forward and full of ritual swagger. This is a debut that knows exactly which altar it worships at, and the tracklist, “Terrorcraft,” “Alucarda 77” (a nod to the 1977 nunsploitation horror), “Fur, Claws and Leather,” keeps the candles lit.
The best thing about the record is that it refuses the loudness war outright, and that refusal is a feature, not a compromise. “Terrorcraft” opens on a mix that actually breathes, its drums caught with an honest, live, room-tracked warmth and its riffs left dynamic. “Alucarda 77” leans into a dry, raw garage character where the lack of scooped sub-bass keeps the limiter from pumping, and “Child of Vortex” rides an earthy, lo-fi haze that stays organic and uncompressed all the way down. The mid-album turn to acoustic guitars on “Through the Evergreen Fields” is a lovely, airy breather that proves these three have more than one gear. This is raw the way trad doom is supposed to be raw, on purpose and with soul.
Where it slips is density, not fidelity. A couple of tracks pile the fuzz on so thick that the low end turns to soup: “My Second Life” builds a mid-wall dense enough to swallow the bass’s definition whole, and “Dies Capri” overlaps its guitars and bass in the low mids until the individual notes blur, its clean intro giving way to a compressed wall with little transient life left. The garage aesthetic is the whole appeal, but in these moments it tips from warm into murky, and the riffs pay for it.
Unteach is a warm, characterful, unashamedly retro occult-doom debut from a band who understand that this music lives on feel and fuzz, not clarity, and who mostly get the balance exactly right. A touch more air in its densest passages would let every riff land, but taken as the analog ritual it clearly wants to be, it’s a genuine pleasure, and one of the more soulful trad-doom arrivals to crawl out of the Greek underground this year.
Traditional 70s-steeped occult doom, warm and fuzzed and mid-forward, recorded raw on purpose. The best thing is that it refuses the loudness war and treats that as a feature: “Terrorcraft” opens on a mix that breathes, drums caught with honest live room warmth and riffs left dynamic, “Alucarda 77” leans into a dry raw garage character where the lack of scooped sub-bass keeps the limiter from pumping, and “Child of Vortex” rides an earthy lo-fi haze that stays organic and uncompressed. The acoustic turn on “Through the Evergreen Fields” is an airy breather proving more than one gear. Where it slips is density, not fidelity: “My Second Life” builds a mid-wall dense enough to swallow the bass’s definition, and “Dies Capri” overlaps guitars and bass in the low mids until the notes blur, its clean intro giving way to a compressed wall. The garage rawness is the whole appeal, tipping from warm into murky only in its thickest passages. A soulful, characterful analog ritual.
Standout tracks: Terrorcraft, Alucarda 77, Through the Evergreen Fields
