Sonny's Reviews
Truly epic celtic-tinged black metal from the supremely talented Andy Marshall. A little less airy and more down-to-earth than his previous releases, but still superb. Featuring guest vocals from Alcest's Neige on opener Forgotten Paths and the heavenly-sounding Sophie Rogers on Bròn (along with bagpipes from Kevin Murphy) this is Saor stretching out and in the aforementioned Bròn we may arguably have Saor's tour-de-force.
With amazing artists like Andy Marshall and Austin Lunn, the oft-derided black metal solo act is really showing what is possible if you have the talent.
With this, the follow up to his brilliant debut, Roots, Andy Marshall cements Saor's position as one of the premier Pagan / Atmospheric Black Metal bands. Comprising five lengthy BM soundscapes that conjure up scenes of a celtic warband running to battle across wind-blown Caledonian moorlands, that are at times blistering and at others hauntingly poetic. An absolute triumph of the genre and one of the best albums of 2014.
This unexpected ep from Austin Lunn features a couple of tracks left over from his previous two albums that he has released as a tribute to the magnificence of the northern lights. The Crescendo of Dusk is from the Scars.. sessions and is a thirteen minute track of Panopticon's trademark soaring, life-affirming atmo-black that is every bit as good as the tracks on that album. The Labyrinth is from the Autumn Eternal session, but sounds like it should have been on Scars Part II as it's a serene acoustic folk track with virtually spoken clean vocals. This is an indicator of just how dominant Panopticon are when a couple of left-over tracks wipe the floor with nearly every other effort from the nature-black metal scene.
Austin Lunn is possibly the premier exponent of atmospheric black metal currently (certainly in North America) and this release is a real event in the scene. The first album, of this two-album set, showcases Panopticon's usual flawless take on the genre.
The second album of this double release expands on Austin Lunn's obvious love of his roots music - bluegrass and american folk. As with everything else this guy touches the songs are great. The only reservations I have are that the folkier songs expose the (minor) shortcomings in his vocals.
Stunning modern black metal album. Way more variety to the record than we have come to expect from the genre. From blistering Atmospheric BM to bluegrass banjo picking to acoustic ballad, this is an album of real contrasts and a very welcome addition to an, at times, over-conservative genre.
This is the album where Lemmy announced his transformation from mere crew member aboard the space ship Hawkwind, to all out metal overlord of battle station Motorhead. Where his audience had shifted from the acid-dropping, pothead hippies that worshipped his former band mates, to the speed-loving and bourbon-drinking outlaw fraternities of bike gangs and renegades. For proof you need look no further than the title track and particularly The Watcher, two songs Lemmy wrote and recorded with Hawkwind. Here they appear as, I imagine, Lemmy always envisioned them, stripped of space rock pretensions and presented in raw, undiluted loud and dirty rock'n'roll form. As the rock press were fond of quoting at the time (from Philthy Phil, if I'm not mistaken), " if Motorhead moved next door to you, then your lawn would die!"
But, on a personal note, this is the album that made me realise that I had found MY band and, in Lemmy, someone in the music world who could genuinely be looked up to and admired for their integrity and attitude. So long, man, and thanks for all the great memories... Ian "Lemmy" Kilmister RIP
I love this album, almost as indispensible a thrash release to me as Master of Puppets or Reign in Blood. Re-recordings of most of IE's early catalogue with superior singer Matt Barlow on vocals. An awesome hybrid of classic-era Metallica and Judas Priest, this and follow-up Something Wicked This Way Comes mark the high water mark for the band. After that IE descended into power metal cheesiness and irrelevance. Luckily this will always stand as a monument to how great Iced Earth could be.
Angel Witch are one of my favourite bands of the NWOBHM era. They were taken under Lemmy's wing and supported Motorhead many times in the late 70's and early 80's, when I was fortunate enough to have seen them live five or six times. Their debut is still one of my favourite albums and, in my opinion, their contribution to the original Metal for Muthas LP, Baphomet, was the stand-out on that album (up against a brace of Maiden tracks).
These super-raw demos are a great insight into the early days of the band and are worth getting to hear just how exciting they were back in the day.
Saint Vitus are back, reunited with original vocalist Scott Reagers and with a new bassist, Pat Bruders, four-string-wielder with Down. Personally, I prefer Wino's voice to Reagers' but that doesn't mean that Scott is a poor singer, on the contrary, his vocals still suit Saint Vitus just fine. I love Dave Chandler's guitar sound and it kicks right in on opener, typical St.V doomfest Remains and all seems fine with the world. There's a nice variety to the nine tracks on offer, old-school doom like the aforementioned Remains, Wormhole and Last Breath, a quite, gentle track with Reagers singing about some kind of torturous hell, which then leads into a couple of quicker, ass-kicking heavy metal tracks in Bloodshed and 12 Years In The Tomb, the bluesy Hour Glass, creepy-sounding City Park and the hardcore punk of closing track, Useless (yes, that's right, I said hardcore punk!) A common factor to a number of the tracks is that several feature a psychotic-sounding lead break and overall the band feel more aggressive than usual, but this is a solid album and a sigh of relief can be breathed all round by those who give a damn about doom metal and one of it's stalwarts.
On their first five albums Saint Vitus were the masters of the old showbiz adage of "leave them wanting more", with their albums typically clocking in at only about 35 minutes. This is the shortest (32 mins) and, in my opinion, their best. There's no superfluous noodling or padding out (a trap too many Doom bands fall into), just half a dozen absolutely top quality tracks of Traditional Doom, complete with Wino's unmistakable, whiskey-soaked vocal delivery that is absolutely perfect for this style of doom. A track like Bitter Truth gets me every time, so slow and crawling that it gives me a feeling like an icy hand creeping up my spine every time I hear it.
Received wisdom is that the previous albums are better, but I disagree - where Saint Vitus are concerned, THIS is the shit!
Recorded in 1992 by Finland's Thergothon but not released until '94, a year after they split up, Stream From the Heavens represents the primordial ooze from which the funeral doom genre pulled it's hulking bulk. Taking Winter's pioneering death doom and slowing it even further, to a barely perceptible heartbeat, this was the origin of doom metal's most melancholy of all sub-genres. The production is quite poor, but doesn't affect the album overly. The music is minimalist and glacially slow with subdued, sustained guitar chords and plodding drum beats, but there are some interesting tonal variations, such as the thin-sounding organ that occasionally brings to mind the theremin sound often heard in 1950's science fiction movies and the trade off between the growling, sulphurous main vocal and the reedy and washed-out clean vocal (that weirdly sounds like The Velvet Underground's Nico if she was male!)
I think it's fair to say that although funeral doom has advanced (certainly technically) in the 25 years since it's release, this is a truly original album in the development of extreme metal and there has never really been a release quite like it neither before nor since.
A titanic behemoth of an album. Exceptionally mature atmo-sludge / death doom that really does feel like it has pushed the genres forward. Underlying most of the tracks, particularly the duo of Citadel and Howling Lands, is a ritualistic rhythm that feels particularly primal and earthy. Most of the songs mete out a fair amount of punishment, as you should expect from any death doom album worth it's salt, it is, however, anything but relentless, as in Stillness which begins as a gentle acoustic composition, building ominously to a howling guitar that doesn't sound a million miles from Dave Gilmour on Comfortably Numb and Blood on the Lupines, an almost dreamlike tale of a wanderer's ill-fated path to a cursed village and the warning he receives there. None of the tracks are as monolithic as is usual for this kind of extreme doom, with a progressive edge to most of the songs that weaves them through with a little more colour than you may expect. Don't misunderstand, this album also crushes like you wouldn't believe, check out Citadel, The Atavist's Meridian or the title track and tell me this doesn't slay like it should! Any fan of extreme doom metal should grab this future classic immediately.
This may be WITTR best album yet, and if not, it's certainly their best since 2007's Two Hunters. I had almost given up on the band, but this is a welcome return to the blistering, nature-inspired black metal of a decade and more ago from one of the prime movers in the Cascadian BM scene. There's a couple of quieter interludes featuring swedish singer Anna von Hausswolff. Neurosis' Steve von Till provides the clean vocal and plays acoustic on second track The Old Ones Are With Us, but mainly it's classic WITTR, with lyrics encompassing themes such as blessings for the mountain rivers, the celebration of the end of winter and the coming of spring and characters from Norse mythology. Unexpectedly briliant!
For me, Winter's one and only full-length passes all the tests of a truly classic album - it seems to reveal something new on every listen and still feels fresh almost thirty years after it's initial release. Although I've always considered it a really good album, I have grown to love it more on virtually every listen, to a point where it is now one of my all-time favourites. It is super-downtuned almost to point of becoming sub-sonic. John Alman's vocals sound like Tom G. Warrior and on the couple of quicker sections, Servants of the Warsmen and the first section of Destiny, there is a real Celtic Frost vibe to the music.
An early contender for Greatest Ever Doom Album, possibly only topped by Warning's amazing Watching From A Distance.
I've let it be known before that I preferred the rawness that Paul Di'Anno brought to Maiden's sound over the more polished vocal histrionics of Bruce Dickinson, because I just prefer that almost punky, aggressive style. There's no denying, though, that the switch from Di'Anno to Dickinson made Maiden far more palatable to the music press and, consequently, far more popular amongst the young fans who were getting turned onto metal (in England anyway) at this time. Number of the Beast was a decent record with a couple of excellent tracks that was symptomatic of a band forging a new direction and still finding their feet, but despite this it sold massively and catapulted Maiden to the top of the metal tree. The follow up may, therefore, have been problematic, but Steve Harris and co. ironed-out (sorry!) the uneveness of NotB and turned in my favourite post Di'Anno Maiden album, Piece of Mind. Some real classics here, Revelations, Die With Your Boots On and the awesome gallop of the Charge of the Light Brigade-themed The Trooper are all firm favourites. In fact, the first six tracks are one of the best sequences of songs I've heard on a heavy metal album. Even the three final, supposedly lesser, tracks with their fantastical 1,000,000 Years BC-style lyrics are very good songs. With this and the subsequent Powerslave, for me, Maiden hit the high water mark of the Bruce era and sadly were never this good again.
Listen, you f***ers, Paul Di'Anno kicked f***ing ass and if you really need convincing then try Murders in the Rue Morgue, Another Life and the title track from this, Maiden's best album. No vocal histrionics, just balls out, from the heart, metal / punk snarling. It's obvious that here was a young metal band who weren't scared of sounding how they wanted to sound, melding metal bombast with a punk rock attitude that marked them out as head and shoulders above the NWOBHM pack. Do you really think there would have been a Number of the Beast or Seventh Son of a Seventh Son (yawn) if this and the debut album had never been released? No, thought not.
Offputting though the ridiculous vocals are on opening track Roses of Winter, it's worth working past them to get to the rest of this cracking trad doom album from Italy's legendary Paul Chain. Chain's vocals on the rest of his tracks sound a bit like Pete Townsend (no great recommendation, but they don't detract from the great music at all). However, the album really picks up in the second half when Lee Dorrian takes over vocal duties and finds another gear with Chain's guitar work and Dorrian's vocals proving to be a doom marriage made in heaven.
Paul Chain's solo debut is well worth it for the title track alone, sends shivers up my spine every time I hear it. Highly original, if sometimes a bit hit and miss. If The Sensational Alex Harvey Band had been a doom band, then they would probably have sounded like this.
A chimeric melding of death doom and death metal that has got to be one of the heaviest records I've ever heard. Reminds me quite a bit of Winter's awesome Into Darkness (recorded three years after that 1990 classic, I'd be very surprised if these Finns had never heard it prior to recording this). Recorded originally as a demo, the sound is down and dirty, only adding to the excruciatingly weighty atmosphere. If you've any time at all for punishingly heavy music, then this is a required listen.
Another album of quality doom from Subrosa, complete with their trademark, slightly off-kilter atmosphere. There's just something ever-so-unsettling in their sound, particularly the vocals and the violin, as if you're in the presence of someone slightly unhinged who may become dangerous at any given moment. The musical equivalent of Carrie White!
With this, their third full-length release, Subrosa have put out an album of half a dozen towering megaliths of sound that really capture the essence of what Doom is all about. This is no hackneyed rip-off of all the great bands that have proceeded them, Subrosa truly do have a unique sound. Titanic, yet fresh-sounding riffs form the basis of their sound, overlayed with sometimes slightly off-key elements, such as some of the vocals and the violin, which have a disconcerting effect on the listener. All this, coupled with thought-provoking lyrics, ensure that, although most of the tracks clock in at over ten minutes, they never become boring.
Monolithe's first live album was recorded at a private gig at "Les Feux de Beltane" in Brittany in May 2018. Drawing heavily on the band's previous two releases, this showcases what a supremely accomplished outfit they have become. It's especially nice to hear a live version of Monolithe I (albeit in an edited form). With bands as good as Monolithe and the likes of Bell Witch, Funeral Doom is as healthy as ever here at the end of the century's second decade.
This single 52 minute track album is an impressive piece of doom metal engineering. Like an aircraft carrier or a long-range bomber, the size is impressive, but also, in common with those huge military behemoths, every part is necessary and it contains no self-indulgence. Undoubtedly, this is one of the most coherent and focussed extreme-length tracks I have heard to date and a must hear for any fan of death doom metal.
Rich Walker has been doing this a long time. Solstice were formed in 1990, yet have only released their third album in 2018! I can only assume it took twenty years because Mr Walker wasn't ever convinced he could adequately follow up such a bona fide classic as this. The greatest example of Epic Doom, bar none, this is crammed with classics. Solstice generally and on this release particularly, manage to project an essential englishness better than any other band I know (except maybe Jethro Tull), particularly from a time when England was still called Albion. It conjures scenes of mighty castles and epic battles with such vividness that you can almost smell the shit flowing in the streets! Also a special mention must go to Morris Ingram who's fantastic vocals give flight to Rich's vision.
Windhand's third full-length delivers over an hour of archetypal doom metal. The production is better than ever, with Ryan Wolfe's drums in particular benefiting and sounding crisp as gunfire. Along with the Parker Chandler's seismic bass rumble and the huge riffs from Asechiah Bogdan and Garrett Morris, the guys lay down the perfect backdrop for Dorthia Cottrell's sublime voice. Sounding like an angel in a thunderstorm, the effect is absolutely stunning. Windhand have really thrown down the gauntlet to the rest of the female-fronted doom scene with their last two albums and no one comes close yet.
Soma is undeniably a superior recent doom release. The riffs are slab-heavy, perfectly complemented by Dorthia Cottrell's ethereal vocals. The whole album is excellent but, the final two tracks are the real stand-outs. The other-worldly feel to the vocals on track 5, Cassock, is added to by the addition, quite low down in the mix of, I think, electric violin (or an electronic reproduction of). The final, 30 minute, track Boleskine conjures up an image in it's extended fade-out of some huge Doom leviathan disappearing into the distance, it's titanic sound fading as it slowly grinds, glacier-like toward the horizon. If you love doom then you, most definitely, should check this album out.
This is somewhat lighter in tone than the majority of funeral doom albums, feeling more like some kind of spiritual journey rather than a bleakly sorrowful miasma. Don't misunderstand, this still crushes when it wants to, but the emphasis on the lead guitar makes for a more optimistic-feeling kind of funeral doom.
Funeral Doom is extremely suited towards expressing the irresistible nature of elemental phenomena, in the case of Monad Of Creation, the heaving, all-enveloping nature of water in it's myriad forms. The huge, sustained chords and deep, growling vocals move the listener as the tides inevitably move all within the oceans. However, within this massive, immensely powerful background, there are glimpses of light and colour, expressed here as clean guitar work, reminiscent at times of Earth's The Bees Made Honey in the Lion's Skull and spoken, clean vocals that seem to speak of truths hidden in the depths. Don't misunderstand, this lighter tone still carries a deep and abiding melancholy, as perfectly illustrated in the track When the Weeping Dawn Beheld Its Mortal Thirst, a wholly acoustic song with whispered vocals that hint at the abiding sadness of a forlorn spirit.
This a terrific album, that whilst absolutely conforming to the tenets of funeral doom, offers a variation on the unremittingly crushing monoliths of sound that are more usual representations of the genre. This is exemplified in the final (and best) track, Monad of Creation which segues seamlessly from waves of crushing sonic heaviness that match the best, to mournful, yet clear, ringing guitar work and clean vocals that provide a ray of hope amongst all this bleakness.
When you dive down this rabbit hole, you'd better not be expecting Wonderland because here be monsters. This truly is a trip to the dark side of the human psyche and a disconcerting listen that leaves you with the impression that you have been witness to the outpourings of a genuinely troubled mind, like the innumerable notebooks that Mills and Somerset find in the room of the psycho in Se7en. If you have a penchant for the darker corners of extreme metal then this is absolutely a required listen.
It's brilliant when bands push the envelope and progress their sound into new territories but it's also great when a band can consistently deliver quality sounds despite not moving too far from what gave them their appeal in the first place. Grand Magus are definitely in the latter category and are probably my favourite exponents of traditional heavy metal doing the rounds today. For anyone not familiar with them, their sound is down-tuned, and has it's roots in the stoner/doom tradition, although it is neither of those, the songs being heavy metal anthems in the old-school style. This, their ninth full-length album hasn't quite as many memorable songs as my personal favourites Hammer of the North and The Hunt, but still has plenty of high-quality tunes. Check out the Overkill-like intro to A Hall Clad in Gold to hear what I mean. The lyrics are once more about warriors, battle and glory, staples of any self-self-respecting metal gods, so, to Valhalla we ride!
Oh, what a relief! After three cracking albums in Iron Will, Hammer of the North and The Hunt, I felt that previous record Triumph and Power was a bit weak and a real letdown and began to wonder if maybe the mighty Grand Magus had "lost it". However, latest release Sword Songs lays that fear to rest and sees GM well back on track. Anthemic, trad doom-influenced heavy metal of the highest order, guaranteed to get you punching the air and shouting "Fuck yeah" at the top of your voice. A true celebration of Metal.
Evoken's sixth album is a WWI-themed concept album. A dying soldier, bitter at being lied to and the circumstances of his death, begins writing a journal of his final hours. A deal with a sadistic god allows him to imbue the journal with a part of his wounded soul, which then causes any who read it to experience his suffering as their own.
The songwriting and musicianship are excellent, as always. The true success of funeral doom, however, ultimately depends upon the atmosphere created - an area where Evoken have always excelled and thankfully Hypnagogia is no exception. From the bile and bitterness of opening track "The Fear After" to the almost wistful acceptance and embracing of fate from closer "The Weald of Perished Men" this is a real lesson in enabling the listener to make an emotional investment in the music.
Darkly haunting gothic doom and, to this ardent doom-head, CW's best album to date.
The first two tracks are pretty decent, classic-sounding Candlemass. Track three Fortuneteller, unfortunately, comes on like some horrible eighties power ballad and track four is a short, riffy instrumental. A place-holder release while the band finished up 2019's The Door to Doom full-length.
Messiah Marcolin rejoined Candlemass for the third time in 2004 and the band then went on to lay down my second favourite Candlemass album after the seminal debut. I know it will be considered heresy among the faithful, but I prefer this over the acclaimed early classics Nightfall, Ancient Dreams and Tales of Creation. It's quite uptempo for a Candlemass album, leaning heavily toward classic heavy metal. Don't misunderstand, it does have some great slower tracks (Copernicus and The Day and the Night spring to mind), but there's also a nice balance of quicker material. The riffs have a strong Tony Iommi influence (Born in a Tank is a dead ringer for the riff from Children of the Grave) and with Messiah's epic vocals the whole has a ring of Dio era Sabbath throughout. The opening track Black Dwarf in particular is strongly reminiscent of Dio-led tracks like Neon Knights or Mob Rules. The majority of the songs are extremely memorable with some nice hooks and the production lends the sound a clarity that allows all involved to shine. Arguably this was the last great Candlemass album and although follow-up release King of the Grey Islands has it's moments, in my opinion, the Swedes were never this good again.
A mad, experimental mixture of sludge-like metal and electronica with dual vocals that switch from haunting female laments to disturbing male screeches. The Body have raised a middle finger in contempt to conformity and, in so doing, produced an album that undoubtedly will split opinion. Personally, I love when artists challenge their audience a little, even if not entirely successfully and this is a genuine attempt at producing something thought-provoking and a little different. More power to them.
I'm not a huge fan of DSBM, Bethlehem however, are one of the founders of the sub-genre, and are one of the better exponents of this style of black metal. The central riff to Dämonisch im ersten Blitz is particularly cool, reminding me of the kind of riff The Stooges may have used around the time of Raw Power! The album as a whole is less overbearingly self-obsessed as most DSBM and even manages to be pretty evil-sounding at times.
A masterclass in contemporary Funeral Doom - crushing, suffocating riffs relieved by heavenly, ethereal moments of beauty.
Firstly we need to put this album into context. It was recorded by founding member Dylan Desmond and new drummer and vocalist Jesse Shreibman after the other original member, Adrian Guerra, had to leave the band due to ill health. Shortly after recording began the former drummer sadly passed away and as a result the tone of the album shifted. Intended as a single 83 minute piece, due to the restrictions of physical formats, it was split into two parts for the CD double-disc release (the titles of which were As Above and So Below) and into four for the double album vinyl release. So, unusually, the digital release is the one that actually presents the album as originally intended.
Now this isn't an album for the impatient, as I'm sure you've figured out by it's length alone and it's subject matter and tone are not going to be to everyone's taste, but for those willing to give it the time, this is an extremely rewarding piece of music. For those unfamiliar with Bell Witch, they have no guitarist with the role being cleverly covered by Dylan Desmond's bass (and organ, to a lesser extent). I think this makes for a gorgeous subtlety in the sound of the album, adding an even greater depth to the already heavily melancholic atmosphere.
The album is made up of three parts, the second of which is called The Words of the Dead and, poignantly, features vocals recorded by Adrian Guerra for the previous album that were never used. Mirror Reaper is several degrees lighter than the usual funeral doom release, due to the lack of crushing guitar work and often minimalist approach, but this makes the atmosphere even more, not less, melancholy. Even so, ultimately the album does seem to reach a hopeful and positive conclusion. This is obviously a very personal piece of music to the band and an expression and processing of loss with which anyone who has felt similarly bereft can identify and maybe emerge on the way to healing, allowing a kind of catharsis, rather than merely an expression of melancholic doom.
Finally, it would be remiss of me not to mention the absolutely gorgeous cover artwork from the premier cover artist working currently, Mariusz Lewandowski, who's "Hooded Reaper" illustrations are also gracing several extreme metal releases of the recent past from bands such as Mizmor and False.
Ted & Gylve's best album for quite some time harkens back to the first wave and the blackened metal sound of Hellhammer and Bathory. Yet, despite the retro-black aesthetic, the album still sounds vital and relevant these 30 years later. Darkthrone are one of the most important and respected black metal bands because they stayed true to themselves and never put out albums just to please others. The fact that so many people still give a shit what they're doing attests to that and more power to them.