1995 saw the release of Saint Vitus' seventh full-length album, "Die Healing" and marked the return of original vocalist Scott Reagers to the fold. It followed what is widely considered the band's weakest album, 1992's "C.O.D." which, following the departure of Wino, had featured Count Raven's Chritus on vocals. Now, as much as I love Wino's grizzled vocals, I think Reager's more eccentric style actually better captures the soul of Saint Vitus, so his return was well-timed and he is on fine form here. "Die Healing" was intended to be the band's swansong (although that notion has consequently been proven premature) and it seemed apt for them to end as they began with Reagers behind the mic.

Kicking off with one of the band's best tracks, "Dark World", Die Healing immediately exorcises the ghost of "C.O.D.'s" mediocrity and points towards a band intent on going out in style. Dave Chandler has an ear for simple but effective doom metal riffs and he sounds unlike anyone else with an instantly recognisable and unmistakeable guitar tone that many have tried and failed to adequately reproduce. There is a certain rawness to the best Saint Vitus material, derived from their early days touring with hardcore punk bands, that makes them sound like the sort of band who have just rolled up in a rattling old Transit van, unloaded their own battered gear, plugged it in and just started playing. Now while I am certain that is far from the truth, it doesn't alter the fact that when they are at their best that is exactly how they sound and personally I love that about them.

The tempo here is generally pretty slow, although they sometimes switch it up a little to provide contrast. "Let the End Begin", for example, is one of the album's most sluggish tracks, but contains an uptempo mid-section where Chandler lets rip with a much more energetic riff and guitar solo before reverting back to the creeping grind of the opening section. In fact the guitar solos are generally pretty shred-like with DC going fret-crazy and teetering on the edge of feedback, almost Hendrix-like at times, as on "Trail of Pestilence" for example. The band are also unafraid to lampoon themselves and the wider doom ethos a little bit, with "The Sloth" telling an apocalyptic tale of a marauding Kaiju-like sloth creature slowly laying waste to all around it like a slow-motion Godzilla.

Saint Vitus are unquestionably my favourite of the very early doom metal bands and whilst Trouble, Pentagram et al have their moments for sure, I think SV are the most consistent, C.O.D. aside. Whether it is Reagers or Wino on vocals they just encapsulate that filthy, grizzled aesthetic that so typifies the earliest trad doom scene and which lends them an air of authenticity that feels like they could turn up to play at your local pub on any given night. Great band, great album check it out if you haven't already.

The Ghost of Tomas Lindberg

It is with trepidation that I finally get around to reviewing what may very well be the final At the Gates album. One of the fundamental bands that I discovered during the mid/late 2000s for introducing me to heavier/extreme sounds in metal music. I want At the Gates to send us off on a stellar finale, but because of circumstances that span well outside the range of this forty-two minute album, this swan song turns out to be less impactful than expected.

Now I try going into these types of reviews with a preset that a record released posthumously should not affect its score. Sometimes the emotion is justified (i.e. Trees of Eternity's Hour of the Nightingale) while others leave me feeling more empty. The Ghost of a Future Dead meets me somewhere halfway between the two. On one hand, At the Gates are quite influential on my life as mentioned previously, but on the other, this record is brought down the same reason as Avenged Sevenfold's Life is But a Dream from a few years back. In both cases, the lead singer had been dealt a terrible hand and it drastically affected their voice. Tomas Lindberg's cancer diagnosis as well as the treatment must have left his vocal cords destroyed and you can hear that with how shrill the vocal delivery is here. Jens Bogren has done all of the amplification and modification possible to make the vocals sound adequate, but even that falls short most of the time. It's an album that doesn't compliment its shortcomings very well.

Which is a bit of a shame because beneath the vocals is a very solid melo-death album. The instrumentals are very good and deliver some top quality riffage and melody. Early tracks and promotional singles lead the way with "The Fever Mask" and "The Dissonant Void" being early album standouts. "Tomb of Heaven" hits hard and reminds me a lot of Slaughter of the Soul in its presentation/execution. But it's after that song that the album just kind of flattens out. The second half of the album drags on and has no standout features that haven't been done already, and better, in the first half of the record. After the penultimate track brings everything back down and prepares the listener for the finale, "Black Hole Emission" continues in the exact same style as what was brought before. It is a lackluster way to end an album that was already losing steam about five songs previous.

And so, after more than three decade career (which included a lengthy hiatus), At the Gates seemingly comes to its end. And in a weird way, The Ghost of a Future Dead follows in the career of At the Gates in its presentation. The first few tracks are heavy and driving (The Red in the Sky is Ours), which is followed by about two or three songs that grow even more aggression (Slaughter of the Soul) before resting on their comfort zone during the albums second half (At War with Reality, To Drink From the Night Itself). This is not the way I expected these giants of the Gothenburg death metal to go into that good night.

Best Songs: A Ritual of Waste, Of Interstellar Death, Det Oerhörda

For Fans Of: Dark Tranquility, In Flames, Arch Enemy

This highly regarded Ukrainian duo first crossed my path back in 2009 through their excellent 2004 sophomore album "Autumn Aurora" which triggered me to explore the rest of Drudkh's back catalogue (well, at least the metal releases from it) over the next couple of months. Their 2003 debut album "Forgotten Legends" would be positioned quite early in that journey & didn't disappoint either, gradually becoming my drug of choice when it came to Drudkh. "Forgotten Legends" is a surprisingly accomplished atmospheric black metal effort for a first-up release & very quickly shows the duo of vocalist Thurios (Rattenfänger/Astrofaes/Blood of Kingu/Hate Forest/Old Silver Key) & guitarist/bassist Roman Saenko (Hate Forest/Precambrian/Rattenfänger/Windswept/Blood of Kingu/Dark Ages/Necrom/Old Silver Key) to possess a very strong understanding of the elements that make the subgenre engaging. Session drummer Yury Sinitsky (Lutomysl/Blood of Kingu) keeps things very simple in a similar way to that of Varg Vikernes on the classic Burzum records which allows Saenko's trance-inducing & repetitive riffs to slowly envelope the listener. I wouldn't say that these riffs are taken from the top shelf of the black metal spectrum but they are unanimously enjoyable nonetheless, keeping the tempo around mid-pace throughout & never being tempted into frenetic blast-beat territory. It's only when those riffs are combined with Thurios' blackened shrieks that we see the atmosphere reaching its full potential though & I'm subsequently gonna suggest that it's Thurios' contribution that is the most important component of the early Drudkh sound. His keyboard work is surprisingly scarce which leaves "Forgotten Legends" sounding quite traditional. The listener will no doubt pickup on the nature themes even if they can't interpret the lyrics because this record simply "feels" earthy, without ever fully crosses the line into the pagan black metal territory.

The tracklisting on "Forgotten Legends" is extremely consistent with the three lengthy metal tracks & the rain-soaked atmospheric outro piece all being very strong but never tempting me to claim any of them as genuine classics. All three of the proper songs have their moments & harness a pretty dirty guitar tone that always maintains a bit of bass to good effect. If pushed, I'd probably suggest that the sixteen-minute opener "False Dawn" is my pick of them as it slowly draws you in & maintains your interest for the full duration of the piece. It was a bold move to open their first full-length with such an epic undertaking but it has paid off in my opinion. One probably needs to remember that both of Drudkh's band members had paid their dues by this point though given that they'd both been a part of Hate Forest for seven years when they recorded "Forgotten Legends".

As with Drudkh's other popular releases, I've really enjoyed this revisit & feel that "Forgotten Legends" is a solid black metal record that will satisfy most punters who maintain a penchant for the more restrained, measured & atmospheric side of black metal. While 2006's "Blood in Our Wells" is often referred to as Drudkh's pièce de résistance these days (along with the previously mentioned "Autumn Aurora"), I tend to favour this record just slightly over both of Drudkh's other early masterpieces. I really enjoy its epic feel as the two musicians show a clear enjoyment & an undeniable talent for their chosen craft.

For fans of Burzum, Hate Forest & Walknut.

I first became acquainted with Sweden's Unanimated through their debut album "In the Forest of the Dreaming Dead" which I picked up through one of my Neuropath band mates shortly after it was released in 1993. While Unanimated's initial effort didn't exactly fit inside my traditional extreme metal comfort zone, I nonetheless found myself quite enjoying its unique blend of melodic death & black metal sounds & gave it a few repeat spins at the time. In fact, I still regard "In the Forest of the Dreaming Dead" as one of my top ten melodeath releases to this day which is really saying something. By 1995, I was more heavily involved in the tape trading scene than ever before so, when I heard news of a brand-new Unanimated record, I immediately went about picking it up through one of my European contacts, looking for more of the same from the Swedes yet also hoping that they might push things up to a new level. Many death metal fans will tell you that they did too. Me? I'm not so sure.

"Ancient God of Evil" is a very polished release for the time with the crystal-clear Dan Swanö production job giving Unanimated the best possible chance at succeeding in their quest for extreme metal stardom. It's also a touch more melodic than its predecessor with the black metal component being a little stronger & taking the form of some pretty cool keyboard-backed atmospheric sections. It's worth noting that these guys were amongst the first to attempt the more melodic black metal sound & were quite influential on that subgenre so they were old hands at it by this point in their careers. Raspy vocalist Micke Jansson (Damnation) does an excellent job as the band's main focal point while the all-star rhythm section of bassist Rickard Daemon (Dismember/Murder Squad/Carbonized/Damnation/General Surgery) & drummer Peter Stjärnvind (Merciless/Murder Squad/Black Trip/Damnation/Entombed/Krux/Nifelheim/Pest/Regurgitate) hold down the back end with aplomb, leaving plenty of room for their band mates to build their instrumental hooks. While guitarists Jonas Mellberg (Therion) & Johan Bohlin (Desultory) may present a plethora of memorable melodic ideas between them though, they aren't exactly virtuosos & struggle to achieve anything above a very basic guitar solo so I think they often would have been better off going without & focusing purely on the riffs.

The song-writing on "Ancient God of Evil" is very consistent in that there are no weak tracks included, mainly because Unanimated were a class act so, even during the songs that sit furthest from my comfort zone, I generally maintain some level of admiration for the scope & execution. Despite the undeniable class & consistency though, "Ancient God of Evil" isn't exactly chock full of highlights. Like most melodeath, I find popular, hook-laden songs like opener "Life Demise", "Oceans of Time" & "Dying Emotions Domain" to be more agreeable than they are exciting. It's the short instrumental "Mireille" & catchy closer "Die Alone" that hit me the hardest & show the full potential in the mid-90's Unanimated sound. There's no doubt that Unanimated knew what they were doing. I'm just not quite sure this sound & style is something that I can get completely onboard with though so I'd probably position "Ancient God of Evil" slightly behind its older sibling "In the Forest of the Dreaming Dead" in terms of my overall enjoyment of the package. It's still one of the better examples of blackened melodeath that you're gonna find though so I've managed to find some space for it at the bottom of my top ten melodeath releases as well.

For fans of Dissection, Necrophobic & Thulcandra.

"Vaenir" is this Gothenburg doom trio's 2015 sophomore full-length, following relatively hot on the heels of the debut, "Empress Rising" from the previous year. They play lengthy distorted doom metal dirges with towering chords, sloth-like pacing and a 'washed-out' vocal style that feels like it is coming to you across huge cosmic distances. Despite the thunderously robust foundation laid down by bassist Mika Häkki and drummer Esben Willems and the undoubted weight of the riffs, the vocals impart a certain ephemeral quality to the atmosphere and act as a spiritual counterpoint to the immensity of the bottom end.

Monolord have a distinct blueprint for how they want to sound and pretty much stick to it throughout. There is very little variation in pacing within tracks, no sudden changes of gear to spice things up, these Swedes being pretty much fundamentalists when it comes to doom metal. If you are impatient for variety and innovation in your listening diet then chances are that Monolord will hold very little appeal for you and you may be better served moving on elsewhere. More recently I feel they evolved a slightly more lightweight sound with hints of psychedelia thrown in, but back in the heady days of 2015 they were all-in on the crushing repetitiousness of 'true' doom metal and were unrelenting in its delivery.

And that, not wishing to sound in any way dismissive, is pretty much everything there is to know about "Vaenir". How you feel about that depends on what you want from your metal. Me, I am more than happy with an album of heavy and uncomplicated doom metal done well and with an unpretentiousness that speaks to a band fully committed to shaking the cosmic walls.