Lowen

Lowen formed in the United Kingdom in 2017 around vocalist Nina Saeidi and guitarist Shem Lucas. Saeidi's Iranian background feeds directly into the music: Persian melodic lines and Middle Eastern modes sit inside a heavy framework of slow, thickly distorted riffs, so that passages of unaccompanied singing and traditional-sounding melody give way to long stretches of doom metal weight.

Her voice is the group's most identifiable feature, clear and sustained rather than harsh, and it tends to carry the melody while the guitars hold to a much slower pulse beneath. Their songs often run long, with progressive structures and shifts in texture, and their lyrics draw on Persian history and mythology.