Head of the Demon - Deadly Black Doom (2020)^{Release ID: 20446}

The track from this album that got featured on The Fallen playlist for April (En to Pan) is an addictive little number, full of brooding menace and threat that is delivered with an almost ritualistic slant – especially to the vocals. This piqued my interest in the rest of the album, hoping there was more of the same. To be honest there is and there is not. The title of Deadly Black Doom turns out to be just as confusing as it first sounds upon reading the description.

I do not hear anything particularly blackened about this record in terms of sound. In fact, given that the aesthetic of anything blackened does not stretch beyond the vocals the site tag of doom metal serves the perfect purpose. Saibot’s grim and croaky delivery is not as bm as you would first think upon hearing me describe it as thus. It is a combination of sludge/hardcore spouting done in a less bellicose manner than if he was fronting any such band of those sub-genres. He is by far the most interesting aspect of the band’s sound, however.

Not that I find the album boring as such, but the fact remains that Deadly Black Doom is not all that “deadly” to my ears. I wanted some ritualistic tracks, steeped in atmospheres with a sense of density behind them. Instead, I get what sounds like very diluted riffs that manage to give off a sense of melancholy brilliantly but still could do with something to wrap them up in to maximise effect. Although there are flashes of this dark ceremony that I crave every now and again, they feel too sparse and infrequent to satiate my hunger (or even make that much of a dent in it to be honest).

It works in a “background music only” guise as an album but despite four listens to it there is nothing bubbling underneath the surface that makes me believe this is going to get much in the way of revisits from me.

Deadly Black Doom is Head of the Demon's third album and features six tracks totalling fifty minutes. The Swedes play doom metal that owes a debt to black metal in it's atmosphere and stylings but doesn't really feature any actual BM. What it is is an album full of foreboding and forbidden promises that lure the listener into a sense that they are hearing a ritualistic exhortation to performance of proscribed rites in abandoned crypts by adherents to long-reviled occult teachings. Sinister doom metal that is actually incredibly entertaining and varied with some great hooks and rasping and growled vocals that provides an alternative to the usual occult doom template. If I had to pick a favourite track, I love the drumming on En to Pan, it's uptempo occult vibe is a fantastic example of what the album has to offer.