Northumbria are a duo—a guitarist and a bassist—making “ambient metal” heavily dependent on drones, rumbling and a generally heavily atmospheric approach. Sound familiar? Well, forget what you’re thinking. While comparisons to Sunn O))) come easily to mind, Northumbria aren’t so easily pigeonholed. Listening to this five-track, 54-minute album, I’m reminded more of Azonic‘s Halo (a solo album by the guitarist of Blind Idiot God, produced by Bill Laswell) or “Pure II,” the final track on Godflesh‘s Pure, than anything in the Sunn O))) catalog.

Guitarist Jim Field and bassist Dorian Williamson, both former members of the group Holoscene, formed Northumbria in 2011 in their native Toronto.

Listen to “Black Sea of Trees”: