Do we really need another doom band? If you were to look to those who copy the teachings of predecessors like Saint Vitus, Electric Wizard and Sabbath, only to take it no further, the answer is decidedly a big, fat, pulsating "no." For a chosen few, though, that blueprint is only a launchpad for going further into the darkness, adding more diverse influences and changing that answer to the contrary. San Francisco's King Woman are one of those bands.

On their latest track, "Utopia," King Woman use doom metal as a vehicle to push the enchanting vocals of Kristina Esfandiari, whose haunting approach recalls the likes of Hope Sandoval: damaged, haunting, ethereal and ultimately beautiful. The sliding low-end riffs only punctuate her voice further, almost taking you away from the fact that if this band was playing directly in front of you, your hair would most definitely be moving from all the air being pushed by woofers.

Stream the track below, and look for the LP Created in the Image of Suffering February 24 on Relapse.