Godthrymm - Reflections (2020)^{Release ID: 17230}

When Hamish Hamilton Glencross left My Dying Bride due to "irreconcilable differences" he hardly dropped off the metal music radar altogether. Continuing with his guitar (and bass) duties in Vallenfyre the former Solstice man first pitched up with Godthrymm in 2018. Picking up vocals along with his more renowned guitar work the band Hamish has started to forge yet another quality death/doom act which currently has fellow MDB and Solstice skinsman Shaun Taylor-Steels and the superbly named Sasquatch Bob in the ranks also.

Reflections might be the best doom record of the year for me. The caveat being that I listen to very little doom so this isn't as bold a statement as it initially may sound. With me having played the record three or four times so far in the past week I think it is fair to say that I still have some way to go with it before I can say I have unlocked all of the nuances and devilish detail contained over the eight tracks on offer. What I can say however is that Hamish and co's ability to write infectious, epic and expansive doom passages is clear from the word go with this record and the main quality that comes off from the experience of listening to it is how consistent it is. Worth noting also how memorable the tracks are, with We Are The Dead, The Sea As My Grave and Cursed Are The Many already ringing in my head after the limited listens I have had thus far.

There's a strong and binding groove to the riffs also that hook you in superbly and seem to surge and swell with the dark atmosphere that the album is shrouded in but they also have a stoner element to them that gives just a tad of warmth also. There's very little if in fact any death metal elements here with all the vocals being clean sung and the weight of the riffs avoiding to much of a raw edge to allow the record to be heard as anything other than an epic doom record in the main. Bob and Shaun do a superb job of simply pounding away in the background making the low end heavy as possible and underpinning the vocals brilliantly.

Despite its obvious epic nature the album is not overly-theatrical or gratuitous with it. Everything is built on really solid, heavy foundations that allow the robust structures to be built upon them and develop into established and accessible songs you want to revisit.

Godthrymm were founded by respected UK doom metal guitarist Hamish Glencross, ex-member of Solstice and My Dying Bride. This is the band's first full-length album after releasing a couple of well-received EPs, particularly 2018's A Grand Reclamation. The guitarist's sojourns in both bands have left their mark all over this album, combining the sorrowful mourning of MDB with Solstice's epic doom sensibilities, resulting in an album with one foot rooted firmly in the past of UK doom metal and the other reaching for the future and although it's sound echoes from the 90's it's influences combine to form a modern release nonetheless. Glencross' vocals have the requisite mournfulness, but also have a strength to them that suggest a spirit tested but not broken by the sorrows heaped upon it. Occasional female vocals add another layer of epic mourning to the atmosphere. The huge riffs convey a dark power that is infused with a sense of dread and yet a determination to prevail. All in all an impressive debut album from a seasoned doom metal warrior's latest incarnation that should appeal to any and all fans of UK doom.