Reviews list for Hour of 13 - Black Magick Rites (2020)

Hour of 13 are the brainchild of North Carolina's multi-instrumentalist Chad Davis and have had a turbulent history with almost constant line-up changes that have inviolved them going from a duo to a quartet and back again. Erstwhile vocalist, veteran of many doom outfits, Phil Swanson has been in and out of the band, but like clockwork, has always been present when the previous three albums have been cut. Black Magick Rites was released for only 24 hours on the band's website back on 1st November 2020 and was then taken down. It has now been re-released by Shadow Kingdom Records in physical format.

Black Magick Rites is basically a Chad Davis solo album released under the Hour of 13 name and is the first to feature Davis himself on vocals, Swanson not being in the picture for whatever reason this time around. Unfortunately for Chad this is the most glaring difference between the latest and the previous trio of albums. Davis is not a terrible vocalist, I have heard far worse in doom circles, but he is no Phil Swanson either. Swanson has a very distinctive voice that is perfectly pitched for traditional doom metal and has a lot of recorded doom under his belt, whereas Davis' vocals sound a little washed out and are not at all remarkable. Some vocalists can raise the quality of a release by the strength of their performance alone (think Mercy with and without Messiah Marcolin) and Swanson is one of those, sadly Davis isn't. 

Musically, if you are familiar with Hour of 13's previous releases then there won't be any great surprises here for you. Davis writes convincing, Sabbathian riffs and (ofttimes hokey) lyrics of the occult with decent skill and is obviously well-steeped in traditional doom metal and understands what it's adherents look for in the genre. But I just can't help but ponder what might have been if Davis and Swanson could have resolved whatever differences lay between them for this release and I keep coming to the conclusion that we would have been listening to a better album as a result.