Belarussian Reido's _Minus Eleven_ (or, alternatively, _-11_) belongs to the aforementioned time frame, having been released in those colder, bleaker last days of 2011, after a five-year hiatus from the band's highly acclaimed debut album _F:all_, which showcased a monumental funeral doom display praised by many.

Surprisingly, 2011's _Minus Eleven_ is a product by a very different Reido. Still slow and heavy, but the style and sound have completely changed, switching from melodic yet dense funeral doom, to a sludge-oriented doom metal sound flirting with some post-hardcore influences -- sounding not once as a doom-core outfit, along the lines of Overmars, but with a twist of an industrial sound, something akin to the likes of Meathook Seed or P.H.O.B.O.S., for instance.

There's nothing exceptionally spectacular here, or anything we have not heard before, however _Minus Eleven_ manages to create a cold, bleak sound, almost mechanized in nature, infusing the music with an industrial tinge, a sonic visualization of an indifferent freezing world of deep dark shades of gray and bottomless silhouettes. Reido take sludge and strip it from any happy stoner quality usually accompanying or leeching almost inevitably Stoner's step-brother, namely Sludge. The band leaves only the essentials here: the sea of bellowing, wailing, harrowing guitars and the basic, clockwork-precise drum programming, accompanied by menacing hardcore-ish vocals and a dirty recording that makes everything here bleaker, lending the music a quality of an unsettling feeling, like being on a verge of a colossal disaster.

_Minus Eleven_ is a brooding piece of pure, no-frills sludge-y doom metal with heavy industrial leanings. The album's sense of melody lurks underneath layers of heavy guitars and mechanical rhythms, but even these melodies are 100% stoner-free, a fact that makes this album sound even nastier and colder. Listen to this album carefully, pay attention to details, its qualities will slowly unfold and you will be devoured by its power and malevolence...