Review by Sonny for 1782 - Clamor Luciferi (2023)

1782 are a Sardinian three-piece who were formed by members of stoner / heavy psych band Raikinas back in 2018 and are a band I have been following fairly closely. They hadn't yet produced anything earth-shattering, but I could hear that they had potential for some decent stuff so stuck with them. Clamor Luciferi (Scream of Satan) is their third full-length since 2019 (so they aren't hanging around) and marks yet another step up the stoner doom ladder for the Italians. They are heavily redolent of stoner doom masters Electric Wizard, who I suspect are a major influence, not just on their sound but also on their subject matter, the occult and anti-religion featuring heavily in their lyrical themes.

Starting off with a short, foreboding organ piece, A Merciful Suffering, (not exactly an original device in occult stoner doom circles, but effective nonetheless) 1782 set the scene for the journey through the house of the devil that is Clamor Luciferi. As the organ subsides that thick, syrupy, fuzzed-up guitar kicks in, joined by a ponderous drum-beat that portends ill like some bell of doom. The vocals are of the rough, but washed-out, distant-sounding variety, heard as if from a great fog-ridden distance, that intone all manner of devilry and misdeed. The following forty minutes comprise unrelenting hugely distorted, ponderous riffs that diverge very little from stoner doom orthodoxy and an ominous atmosphere derived from occult horror themes of demon-summoning and devil worship. There are a couple of short solos on the album, but that isn't what this is about, it's all about the atmosphere.

All-in-all this hasn't got much by way of originality, but it is pretty damn heavy and ticks all the boxes you would expect from a band so heavily influenced by Electric Wizard, so if that sounds like something you would enjoy then give it a spin. Personally, I enjoyed it, but I have always been a sucker for stonerized doom, so that's not too much of a surprise (like the album).