Summoning - With Doom We Come (2018)^{Release ID: 1426}

It's pretty clear that these are leftovers from the Old Mornings Dawn sessions. After the success of that album, this lighter-weight offering follows a few years later even though it took Summoning *10 years* between the prior two albums. If these songs weren't OMD cuts, then they're just rushed and underdeveloped.

While this would be a great album for most aspiring atmospheric black metal bands, the fact that the mighty Summoning name is attached makes it a disappointment. They can do much better. That said, the signature Summoning atmosphere is still here and I'm a sucker for it, so I can't knock the rating below a 3.5 or strong 3. And the title track, admittedly, is a true keeper.

I call false album title. There's no doom on here folks. Any flare-wearing readers can stand down at this point of the review. I imagine the doom aspect of the title refers to the medieval threat of some Tolkien inspired fictitious army that Summoning have kindly recorded a soundtrack for. If you are familiar with Summoning there's little in the way of anything new here as the Austrians again bring their own brand of epic/atmospheric black metal to 2018.

The problem I have with "With Doom We Come" is that it doesn't really "go" anywhere. It could quite easily all be one track with seven pauses given the sound and structure varies very little from track to track. That is not to say it is a bad album, it just drips into the water without ever making a real "splosh" at any point. There's the usual gruff vocal style and occasional chanting over keys whilst the guitar just sits in the corner with a tea and some crossword books to bide the time one presumes.

Sarcasm aside, fans of the band will like this albeit without any truly remarkable moments to cement it as a stand out album. Usually, I can't sit and listen to Summoning without doing something else and this made a great accompaniment to some shelves I hung this morning, very rousing at times to the point of making me forget about my hangover altogether. The atmospheric magic never really finds any identifiable peak though, beautiful though the record is at times nothing really stands out overall.