"Black Tears"

While listening to IV.I.VII, the excellent and upcoming album from Indianapolis band Coffinworm, try to avoid asking yourself just what kind of metal they make: It’ll only cause fatigue. Across the album’s 40 minutes, Coffinworm (whose publicist, Kim Kelly, is a writer for Pitchfork) navigate a logjam of metals black and sludge, doom and death, inexhaustibly pushing elements of each form atop, underneath and around one another.

That fluidity defines “Black Tears,” a song that’s every bit as turbid as the stoner stuff of Southern bands like Weedeater or Kylesa and every bit as grand and arching as the best atmospheric black metal. Coffinworm first plows through a massive slog, a tempered beat fighting through riffs that hang sinister and low, like late-night summer fog. But they speed into the second half, a mid-tempo march continually elevated through a string of blast beats. Beneath it, though, listen for the looming riffs and the stubborn bass. Somehow, Coffinworm seems to slow down even as they speed. IV.I.VII is out March 18 via Profound Lore.