Reverberations from the past always find ways to haunt the present. This is not always a bad kind of haunting however, especially if you make a brand of music entitled “doom soul”. Cold Specks’ emotive debut album, I Predict a Graceful Expulsion, channels the haunting sounds of old blues from the Deep South with mountainous folk ruminations, all underlined with an ominous feeling of impending doom. Here, Etobicoke, Ontario’s Al Spx has crafted an album of tremendous achievement, already appearing on various television programs in Britain, and receiving critical acclamations the world over. Musically, there are subtle spaces left open by the simple guitar playing and subtle instrumentals on the tracks. Yet this only serves the purpose of highlighting the dark, painful rasp of Spx’ voice, which shrouds the album in a repentant loneliness. Slow-burning like a dying fire refusing to be put out, the album smoulders its way along without ever really catching fire. That is, until a heavy dose of gasoline is poured onto the hot ashes for the epitomic closing track “Lay Me Down”. It is then where we really see what “doom soul” is all about.