Friends of Hell - Friends of Hell (2022)Release ID: 35400
With the band name Friends of Hell, it was fairly likely that this band would perform doom metal in the style of the genre as it was in the early 80s. Friends of Hell is, after all, the name of Witchfinder General's second album from 1983. I have to say that this didn't excite me as much as it might do other doomsters, as I'm not a big fan of that particular band. Any concerns were quickly washed away though, as it was pretty obvious on first listen that these guys worship ALL the early doom bands. There's plenty of Sabbath, Saint Vitus and Pentagram here, and all the wonderfully doomy riffs are accompanied by the stunning vocals of Sami Hynninen from Reverend Bizarre (a band I really need to spend more time with). Sami appears to be making an effort to imitate the differing vocal styles of the bands I just mentioned, particularly Scott Reagers and Bobby Liebling from Saint Vitus and Pentagram respectively, and I have to say I enjoy his performance immensely. He even does a fair King Diamond impersonation on a couple of tracks (his main lower register, not the high stuff), creating strong ties to much of metal music's origins.
I must point out that third track Into my Coffin takes the schlock-horror atmosphere to a level of kitsch I'm not comfortable with (the connotations of "come into my coffin" are just a bit too much for me), but all is forgiven by the time closing track Wallachia graces my ears. This is the highlight track by far for me, and I'm secretly hoping that Sonny chooses it for this month's Fallen playlist (not so secretly now). If you can get into the early doom sound of the 80s, then you really should acquaint yourself with these Friends of Hell. Here's hoping they remain friends for at least another album or two.
2022 RANKING (56 releases so far)
26. Negativa - 04 - 4 stars
27. Friends of Hell - Friends of Hell - 4 stars
28. Vorga - Striving Toward Oblivion - 4 stars
2022 DOOM RANKING (15 releases so far)
8. Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard - The Harvest - 4 stars
9. Friends of Hell - Friends of Hell - 4 stars
10. Primitive Man - Insurmountable - 4 stars
Fantastic! My old friend Sami Hynninen (aka Albert Witchfinder) is back with a new doom metal band, presumably named after Witchfinder General's second full-length. We've not heard much from the Reverend Bizarre legend since he left Spiritus Mortis in 2017, so when this came out of the blue I was exceedingly excited to have some new material at last. The reason I'm so fond of Witchfinder is that he truly "gets" doom metal and with his new band he seems to be mining the traditional doom scene of the eighties and early nineties with more than a few nods back to classic Black Sabbath. It seems to be no coincidence that the band are named after a Witchfinder General album. The new band is a four-piece which, as well as Witchfinder, features fellow Finn, former Impaled Nazarene and Sentenced bassist Taneli Jarva along with Cypriot tattoo artist and ex-Electric Wizard bassist Tasos Danazoglou on drums and completing the lineup is Greek guitarist Jondix.
The songs on Friends of Hell are fairly short and relatively punchy for doom metal, but this was not uncommon on early trad doom albums and is in sharp contrast to Witchfinder's material with Reverend Bizarre. Lyrically and thematically we are in B-movie, schlock-horror territory with song titles like Shadow of the Impaler and Into My Coffin, which again is very much par for the course with a lot of trad doom albums. The distorted riffs are pretty damn good, hardly original, but entertaining as hell with a really nice depth to the guitar sound. Albert Witchfinder has some limitations as a vocalist, but I actually think his voice really suits the material, as it did with Reverend Bizarre - not everyone needs to be a Messiah or Rob Lowe. The rhythm section isn't bad, although they don't shine through the mix as much as they could, this is only a minor niggle and is not a huge distraction.
All in all, if you are in the market for some new straight-up trad doom with a cheesy occult theme then you would be hard-pressed to find a better example than Friends of Hell.
