Thronehammer - Incantation Rites (2021)^{Release ID: 27910}

The British/German five-piece's second full-length album is a mighty beast, weighing in at 75 minutes it's seven tracks certainly have plenty of time to make their presence felt. Incantation Rites builds a crushing, oppressive atmosphere with it's slow, heaving riffs which is only added to by the "washed-out" effect of Kat Shevil Gillham's vocals. Now I must be honest and apologise to Kat, because I was sure that Thronehammer had a male vocalist, her vocals are not at all like the majority of female doom vocalists who seem to mostly aim for the ethereal, ghostly effect, whereas Kat has a more classic style of doom vocal, such as that more usually employed by male vocalists like Pallbearer's Brett Campbell or Lord Vicar's Christian Linderson, even occasionally turning in some impressive harsh vocals to boot.

Seamount's bassist Markus Stroehlein provides the drum battery on the album and does a damn fine job of it too. He has quite a busy style for doom metal with plenty of fills and a powerful, steady rhythm. The twin guitars of Tim Schmidt and Stuart West, along with Uwe Void's rumbling basslines, provide plenty of beef to the riffs, which tower and threaten like gathering stormclouds (the track Beneath Black Cloudmasses is not thus named for nothing). All this adds up to a quality doom metal release and I never found the length to be an issue. Fans of bands like Pallbearer, Lord Vicar, Procession etc should find plenty to enjoy here.