Year Of The Cobra Self-Titled CD Review

The wife/husband Doom/Stoner duo that is Year of The Cobra is back with another crushing full-length album. Rather than naming it after a track or something random the band chose to go with the Self-Titled Moniker. I love it when bands do this, no matter the reasoning, it seems mysterious and simplistic.

I first came to know of the band when they released their debut full length “In the Shadows Below” on STB Records back in 2016. I was an avid follower of the label for a time and would purchase just about anything they released without listening as it would sell out a few hours later. YOTC was something totally different for the label and the Doom scene IMO. Inherently, there weren’t a lot of female driven Doom bands that sounded like this, much less two-piece bands. On paper, this two-piece approach shouldn’t work, but amazingly it does. I don’t know the history of the band, but I’m jealous that a husband/wife team get to tour the world, play music and live a full life and kick all kinds of ass everywhere they go.
 
Unfortunately, I haven’t followed the band much since their debut full length, I did check out their 2^nd EP online but didn’t put much thought into it. Now after listening to the new album, I think I may have made a mistake. It would appear the band has found their Pop sensibility and figured out how to inject it into a genre that I love to hate and hate to love. Sometimes Doom/Stoner music just doesn’t have the staying power it needs, truthfully. I don’t smoke weed anymore so I need more than just a Riff to lock in. Let me say it here and now, I was wrong to discard YOTC and I’ll be going back and checking out every release. This new album CRUSHES in the most elegant of ways. The production and clarity of the recording is on point, there’s no haziness and noise to sift through, it’s clear and in your face from the word go. Vocalist/Bassist Amy has found her real voice, she’s probably already had it and I didn’t pay attention. We’re a long way past the debut for sure; her voice absolutely soars and she doesn’t growl or yell in some random tone-deaf head voice, she has an exquisite alto voice, and she lets it ring out loudly. She has also stepped-up her Bass playing game, it’s hard to cover up the fact that you don’t have a guitarist, but she does it rather well here – she’s a riff machine, there are dudes in this genre that don’t have this kind of stroke and ability. Husband, John is a Drumming animal in the most minimalist of ways, he plays a small kit, he plays the one up, one down set up. John cradles Amy’s riffs and helps her to move the beat and the groove along. You can hear a kinship between the two and it’s not just music related, you can hear their love for each other in the way they approach and play music. I’ve been playing music all my life and I can tell you, the less you have, the harder it is to play and make it seem full and enticing to the listener.
 
Stand out tracks – “Alone”, War Drop”, “Prayer”, “7 Years” and “Sleep”.
 
YOTC aren’t a household name yet, but if they keep releasing efforts like this, I could see that happening. I certainly wouldn’t mind seeing them live if they hit up Atlanta, I bet this KILLS live! This album will be on several album of the year lists at the end of 2025, it certainly could have a place on mine.

~Black Angel