Sickwood have released Vultures, the second song from May The Surface Be Condemned, which arrives on 20 November through This Charming Man Records.
The band call what they do necromantic stoner doom, which is a lot of words for fuzz, sludge weight and a psychedelic drift, except that the description earns the first one: Mara Sverdrup sings over her own bass and moves between a melody that sits wrong on purpose and a growl that does not. The lyrics go at the modern world through chthonic gods and enchanted forests rather than head on.
The band is two years old and barely that. Sverdrup met guitarist Maurizio Fabio Famà in December 2024 and the trio was finished in September 2025 when Valerio Urbani took the drums. They played Rome, then recorded.
Stefano Morabito mixed and mastered it at 16th Cellar Studio, which is where Fleshgod Apocalypse and Hour Of Penance have worked, so the record will not sound like a first attempt even if it is one. The video for Vultures was made by Sverdrup and Famà themselves.