SuuM - Cryptomass (2020)^{Release ID: 17454}

Romans Suum play traditional doom metal in the manner of Scandinavians Reverend Bizarre and Lord Vicar and Aussies Rote Mare amongst others. With deep and resonant riffs that are mainly ponderous and doom-laden, but occasionally break loose with some uptempo, raging riffing such as on Creatures from the Vault, the guitar work is crunchingly satisfying. Vocalist Marco Veraldi is a veteran of bands like Bretus and has a sonorous voice, intoning his morbid, death-obsessed musings sometimes with a resignation of inevitability and at others with a howling railing agaist fate, he also does a reasonable impression of Lee Dorrian's Forest of Equilibrium performance on Reaper Looks In Your Eyes. The bass and drums are functional and provide the mortar that hold this whole pile of rocks together without ever being flashy or showy, as any good doom metal rhythm section should.

This kind of trad doom album seldom holds too many surprises, especially for the more seasoned doomhead, but there is enough here to give the listener a taste of the band's own character. The songs are solid and well-performed and, personally, I'm always up for being hammered by another slab of decent doom metal.