Sonny's Reviews
The UK is not blessed with an overabundance of quality black metal bands, but Manchester's Wode are rapidly becoming one of them. Although the sound is more polished than most nineties black metal releases, this album's heart most definitely belongs in the early days of the second wave and unashamedly so. No genre-bending experimentation, no blackened this or that, just straight-up pummelling black metal like back in the day. And it's only half an hour long, for extra authenticity!
Genres: Black Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2017
Female-fronted doom outfits are becoming ten a penny nowadays, but EMBR are a decent prospect. Crystal Bigelow's vocals are excellent and guitarist Mark Buchanan has a great "rolling thunder" tone, but the songs are nothing we haven't heard before and the couple of attempts at harsh, sludgy vocals were ill-advised. Still, there is enough here for fans of the whole doom-with-female-vocals genre to enjoy, myself included.
Genres: Doom Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2020
Battle Dagorath's sixth and latest album is a monster of cosmic proportions. It consists of eight tracks spanning 73 minutes of expansive and sprawling cosmic black metal interspersed with spacey ambient interludes that serve as a breathing space to allow the listener's mind time to settle before the next interstellar journey of discovery. The theme of the album seems to be the belief that some kind of spiritual nirvana can be attained by contemplation of the awe-inspiring majesty of the universe (and who am I to disagree?) Several of the tracks, particularly the longer ones such as Phantasmal Eye of Dreams and Conjuring the Starwinds, through the repetition of their themes and the overall expansive nature of their atmosphere, do possess a certain meditiative quality to them that allows the listener to float away in a kind of out-of-body experience and forget earthly cares as they traverse this metaphorical galaxy.
The production is crisp, allowing the sound to be particularly well defined - not a single note has been lost or buried. The black metal elements are cold and harsh, the keyboards filling out the atmosphere and the vocals are distant, yet at the same time, immediate and savage. This style of black metal obviously has it's roots in Emperor's back-catalogue and you can definitely hear hints of tracks like Cosmic Keys to My Creations & Times and The Majesty of the Nightsky in Battle Dagorath's music. If you are a fan of Mare Cognitum or Darkspace's style of space-themed atmospheric black metal then this should definitely appeal.
Genres: Black Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2020
I'm not super-familiar with these Finns, but of their releases I have heard to date, this is my favourite. A tempestuous, yet melodic, black metal exploration of man's inner turmoil that takes the form of eight well-written and faultlessly executed tracks that revel in their furious savagery. Even so, they never lose their ability to connect with the listener and despite the subject matter of alienation and self-doubt it is a surprisingly accessible album.
Genres: Black Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2020
These Polish thrashers have been quiet since releasing a couple of EPs back in 2015 and 2016, but four years on and they are here releasing their debut full-length, Behold the Realm of Darkness. There's nothing life-changing here, but what it is is old-school, flat-out Sodom-worship that draws on both punk and black metal to greater or lesser degrees. It's all fired off at 90 miles-an-hour with little time allowed to draw breath, but it is solid, energetic and aggressive thrash metal that doesn't disguise it's influences, but does have an endearing honesty about it.
Genres: Thrash Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2020
This is the debut album from Brazilian Caio Lemos, by way of his one-man atmo-black outfit Kaatayra, the first of a couple of albums released under that moniker in 2019. I've got to say, I'm already a big fan, the material is varied and effectively atmospheric, influenced by tribal rhythms I presume are Brazilian in origin, with manic drumming, particularly on Valhacouto de lírios, when I thought he'd brought Animal from the Muppets in to guest! The only real downer for me was the first half of the final track which, for reasons known only to Kaatayra himself, takes the form of some crappy electronic house track.
Genres: Black Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2019
What the fuck happened to Holy Moses between debut Queen of Siam and this, the follow-up? I'm guessing someone locked them in a room and played Kreator and Sodom albums at them twenty-four hours a day. Well, either that or they heard Sacrilege's Behind the Realms of Madness and realised that if they wanted to be taken seriously as a female-fronted thrash outfit then they had to up their game. Luckily, that is exactly what they did as this is a million miles away from the NWOBHM-influenced speed metal of that debut. This is gritty and aggressive, neck-breaking thrash with incendiary solos and an impressively evil-sounding, hardcore-influenced vocal performance from Sabina Classen that shits on the likes of Angela Gossow and co.
The album's ten tracks flash by in a head-spinning blur and seem over in a matter of minutes, although it does actually last a little over half an hour and will have you leaping for the replay button, particularly if you are familiar with the debut, as you may not be able to absorb what you just heard. I really don't think you can overstate the improvement this album made over it's predecessor and is such huge leap it has actually made me negatively re-evaluate my rating for the debut. If you are any kind of fan of Eighties thrash you owe it to yourself to check it out... NOW!!
Genres: Thrash Metal
Format: Album
Year: 1987
For my money Exumer are one of the great underrated 80s thrash outfits. This is probably due to the fact that they only released a couple of killer albums before calling it a day in 1991 (although they did reform for a one-off show at the Wacken Festival in 2001, then going their separate ways until 2008 when they again got back together as they remain to this day) and the fact that they didn't originate any particular style of thrash themselves, but built on styles developed by others. Forming in 1984 (as Tartaros) in Frankfurt, thrash metal history has seen them overshadowed by their more illustrious countrymen, Kreator and Sodom, but believe me, although their albums don't have the originality and fire of a Pleasure to Kill or Persecution Mania, they can certainly hold their heads high in such illustrious company and are well at the head of the second tier of thrash bands that features the likes of Exodus and Testament.
Rising from the Sea is the 1987 follow-up to the previous year's debut, Possessed by Fire and received wisdom says that this is the inferior of the two albums. I, however, wish to disagree on this point. The first is a fine record, no doubt, with some killer tracks, but this is a more consistent album in my opinion. Sure, it's not the most original thrash record ever, borrowing particularly heavily from Slayer, that in itself being the sole reason I don't give this a five-star rating (the lack of originality, not them borrowing from Slayer!) That said though, of all the albums the mighty Slayer have influenced, this is certainly one of the best. New vocalist and bassist Paul Arakari sounds a lot more like Tom Araya than Possessed by Fire's Mem Von Stein, probably the main reason for the comparisons, although the similarities appear in other areas too.
Arakari opens first track, Winds of Death, with an Angel of Death-style scream and we're off and running. This isn't really an album of breakneck, headlong thrashing, but is more of a chug-heavy mosh-a-thon. The solos are of the piercing, shrieking, tortured-metal-sounding, weaponised type championed by Jeff Hanneman and Kerry King. The bass gallops along, despite not being dominant enough in the mix and the drums are effective but could do with sounding a bit crisper. The tracks themselves, despite not being super-original, are pretty memorable and are definitely very enjoyable, Rising From the Sea, Decimation and Shadows of the Past being the stand-outs. This is physical, not cerebral metal and isn't meant to be thought about too deeply, but to be experienced in a way that leaves the listener sweaty and knackered! Neither is it supposed to be highly technical, so what more can you really want from an old-school thrash album than to feel like you've had your ass kicked, at which this is supremely successful... and I for one love this shit.
Genres: Thrash Metal
Format: Album
Year: 1987
Convocation are a Finnish duo comprising multi-instrumentalist Lauri Laaksonen of death metal outfit Desolate Shrine and vocalist Marko Neuman of Dark Buddah Rising. They play epic and funereal death doom with great heaving, sorrow-drenched riffs and vocals that range from rasping, black metal-style shrieks to the more usual gutteral growling of traditional death doom and occasionally MN's unique, quite high-pitched clean style.
The album's four tracks span 45 minutes and as such are afforded the time to expound on their bleakly ominous atmospheres. The first two tracks, Martyrise and The Absence of Grief are fairly typical and really well done examples of this kind of epic death doom, taking their cue from bands like My Dying Bride, but shorn of the gothic overtones, which is just fine by me as I think it makes for a more pure doom experience. Third track, Misery Form, however, is a bit more ambitious, after it's unsettling intro it settles down into similar style to it's predecessors until just after halfway when it takes a more esoteric (small "e") turn and ends up sounding a lot like last year's Waste of Space Orchestra album, Syntheosis, of which Marco Neuman was part. Final track, Portal Closed, is an instrumental that again begins in conventional doom manner but which segues into a more reflective and calm finale, as if the listener has ultimately reached some place of tranquility after the myriad trials that previously beset them.
I really enjoyed this album, it's core of epic death doom is elaborated on just enough to sound fresh and new, whilst still retaining what makes death doom so appealing (to me anyway) in the first place.
Genres: Doom Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2020
A four-track EP, inspired by spring and summertime that opens with a wholly new track entitled Doom for the Red Sun, which doesn't sound as you may expect from the title. It is a doomy-sounding track, but it is wholly acoustic and does have a certain ritualistic and rustic quality. Folky wicca doom that's more than a little Wicker Man. The second track, La sella del Diavolo, dates from the band's Cult of Black Friars sessions and is a fuzzy, psych-doom instrumental that drives along like an open-top motor down a country lane on a sunny day. Astroflower is a cover of an old track from guitarist and vocalist Kjxu's old band Wild Duck, another chunk of fuzz-drenched psych-doom that doesn't do anything special but does have a really satisfying tone. Final track The Hound of Harbinger God is remastered from a 2015 split 7" with fellow Italian doomsters, Bretus. This is a more straight-up doom offering of nearly nine minutes. It's a decent slab of doom, but for some reason it feels like the remastering has left the track feeling a little hollow. All in all not a bad way to spend half an hour, but the opener is the stand-out for me.
Genres: Doom Metal
Format: EP
Year: 2018
Chrono.naut was a track from Electric Wizard's earliest days, when they were still called Eternal, and has also appeared on a split with Orange Goblin, but this release was a 10" EP released on Man's Ruin Records with the track split into two. Side one is the more structured part of the song, and it's stoner doom would even sound familiar to fans of later Electric Wizard releases (although it is a little muddy-sounding). Side two is a big contrast, a surprisingly mellow, laid-back, pychedelic jam that should be accompanied by copious amounts of acid and a Liquid Len lightshow. This second section may not really appeal all that much to fans of the later material, unless they are also big fans of hallucinatory, psych-jam bands (and why wouldn't they be?)
Listening tip: makes a for a great comedown if played straight after the drug-fuelled rampage of the Supercoven EP. Play the two back-to-back for a killer ride!
Genres: Doom Metal Stoner Metal
Format: EP
Year: 1997
While I really like some of Electric Wizard's post-2003 output, particularly the trio of We Live, Witchcult Today and Black Masses, where they really made their name was in the heady days of the Jus Osborne, Tim Bagshaw, Mark Greening three-piece's extended stoner jams. This EP was originally released in 1998 on Bad Trip as a limited edition 12" of 1000 copies. Jammed between Come My Fanatics and Dopethrone this goes even further down the stoned-out, trippier-than-thou road than even those mighty stoner classics, with only two tracks for it's 32 minutes this is throbbing and pulsingly hypnotic doom metal with enough chemical enhancement to anaesthetise an elephant.
Side A, Supercoven, relates a Lovecraftian tale of the summoning of ancient evils that is a slow build through layers of smoke-wreathed, plodding doom until the listener is forced to confront those malicious entities that have sat in wait through countless aeons and the song kicks up in pace and hits you with a tripped-out wall of sound. Strangely Jus Osborne's voice on this sounds like a cross between Kurt Cobain and John Lennon on Helter Skelter (so no drug connotations there, then!)
Side B, Burnout, is a pacier affair, it's doom taking on a distorted Hawkwind Space Ritual vibe (so, again, no drug connotations there either). As the lyrics intone, "imprisoned within my brain, dried and burnt out, chemical stained", Bagshaw and Greening keep pounding away and provide the huge sonic backdrop for Jus to just go ahead and do his thing, man, jamming like his life depended on it.
This is the satanic, drug-damaged bastard biker offspring of the 60s and 70's psychedelic movement come home to roost. There ain't no Nirvana to be reached here, this is stoner nihilism run riot and is where the real Electric Wizard stand up to be counted.
Genres: Doom Metal Stoner Metal
Format: EP
Year: 1998
Melechesh is a Hebrew/Aramaic word meaning King of Fire and the band began in Jerusalem in 1993 as a solo project of Ashmedi before expanding to a three-piece in 1994. The band's black metal is based on Assyrian occult themes and caused them much grief with the authorities in Israel where they were accused of "dark cult activities", ultimately leading to them relocating to Europe in 1998.
The Epigenesis is the band's fifth full-length album and was originally released in 2010. It's eleven tracks weigh in at a whopping 71 minutes, but I never really noticed the album's length (always a good sign) due to the high quality of the music on offer. I would hesitate to call this folk metal as only a couple of tracks feature traditional instruments heavily, but it's black metal most definitely has rhythms and patterns more commonly associated with Middle Eastern music. The majority of the album comprises medium-paced melodic black metal incorporating influences from progressive and technical death metal and along with those traditional rhythms helping to build up quite an effective atmosphere - you can almost smell the hookah smoke as you approach one of the regions dusty and ancient monuments to people and deities long forgotten, invoking images similar to those of Max von Sydow in Iraq at the beginning of The Exorcist. There is an epicness on display here that speaks of the esoteric history of the lands of the band's beginnings and the long-forgotten occult origins that have since been replaced by more modern monotheistic religions.
The album kicks off with a couple of killers, the memorable riffing of Ghouls of Nineveh then the thrashiness of Grand Gathas of Baal Sin with it's war-chant ending make for a top-notch start. Sacred Geometry takes up the torch and runs with it, pulling in influences from tech-death to add to the arabic rhythms of the track's black metal root. The Magickan and the Drones is one of the most savage-sounding tracks on the album, it's riff has an edge that could dismember the listener if they are caught unaware and Mystics of the Pillar is an epic monster with a slower pacing and a heavier arabic-folk influence, particularly in it's middle section.
At this point the first of a couple of traditional-sounding arabic folk tracks is encountered, serving as a respite from the unrelenting heaviness of the album's first half an hour or so, this gives the listener chance to breathe and take in the atmosphere. Defeating the Giants is the album's shortest track and with a thrashing chug added to it's black metal savagery it buzzes round your head like a swarm of locusts. Now where most black metal album's would be thinking of calling it a day at this point The Epigenesis ups it's game and the final four tracks are possibly the album's best. Two guts and blood crackers in Illumination: The Face of Shamash and Negative Theology are followed by the second arabic folk track, A Greater Chain of Being, that perfectly sets up the epic, twelve-minute eponymous closer.
It must be said, the production on this is fantastic, every track and instrument is crystal clear so that the production process doesn't get in the way of the music's impact. Interestingly, the album was recorded in Istanbul and Ashmedi admits to recording the vocal tracks naked at night because "I wanted to feel as primal as possible to fairly represent the vocals."
Melechesh are most definitely one of my favourite modern black metal bands, their songwriting and mucisianship are superb and they certainly refuse to tread the same old furrows as some of their contemporaries. I love all the band's albums, but this is definitely my favourite, it's incorporation of other musical elements and an overall more technical and progressive feel are a departure from their earlier sound and feel like a band growing and stretching themselves whilst losing none of their bite. To produce an album that is at once savage, primal, complex and atmospheric is one hell of an achievement and I for one can't get enough.
Genres: Black Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2010
I love the blending of middle eastern traditional music with metal. Al-Namrood's Saudi folk music is alloyed with manic and ascerbic black metal for one hell of an exhilharating and atmospheric ride. Singer Humbaba, sounds an awful lot like Serj Tankian and I can't shake the notion that System of a Down might well sound something like this if they turned their hands to black metal.
Genres: Black Metal Folk Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2020
Mammon's War was released fully thirteen years after previous album, Messiah of Confusion, during which time Count Raven had split and reformed a couple of times leaving Dan Fondelius as the only remaining founding member. Luckily for us this was no ill thought out and cynical attempt to relive former glories and resulted in the band's best album in my opinion.
It may be a bit obvious and lazy (albeit correct) to state the fact that this sounds an awful lot like 1980's Ozzy Osbourne and there are several tracks that could be compared to tracks on Ozzy's debut solo effort, Blizzard of Ozz, although without the amazing guitar antics of a Randy Rhoades, obviously. This similarity is apparent from the off with the opener The Poltergeist sounding very much like Steal Away (The Night) and second track The Scream coming on like Mr. Crowley. The album's overall vibe is more doomy than Eighties Ozzy for sure, especially on tracks like The Entity and the crawling, despondent-sounding A Lifetime. Interestingly, bridging these two doom-ridden heavyweights is the synth-driven title track that certainly wouldn't have felt out of place on Sabbath Bloody Sabbath and would probably have been preferable to Who Are You.
To Kill A Child sounds like a deeply personal song for Dan Fondelius, describing a father's tough decisions to make about his suffering child, which is followed by the acoustic track To Love, Wherever You Are, the two songs combining to provide the emotional heart of the album. Magic Is... is a return to the vibe of the first couple of tracks and is as much trad metal as doom metal. The subsequent Seven Days is most definitely doom metal though, but is one of the weaker tracks on the album despite featuring the only guitar solo of any substance. The album is closed out by another synth-driven track, Increasing Deserts, that along with the previous track leaves the album with a bit of a weak ending for me. At getting on for seventy minutes, I think the band would have been better advised to give these last two tracks a miss and would have put out a better album because of it. I think in future I'll just eject the CD after Magic Is... and pretend that's the album they meant to make!
Genres: Doom Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2009
My ignorance knows no bounds and Inquisition are another band that I have had little interaction with, other than their 1998 album Into the Infernal Regions of the Ancient Cult that I quite liked. Anyway, fast forward twelve years to this and the Colombian/US three-piece had become a duo, controversial main man Dagon providing guitar, bass and "vocals" (we'll get to that later) and Incubus the drums.
The music is mainly savage, visceral black metal with pummelling drums and brutal riffs that has quite a full sound for BM making it feel like it was recorded by a death metal producer. The songs flash by and the overall aesthetic is one of overarching cosmic evil. The obvious exception is Desolate Funeral Chant, which as you may have guessed from the title is more in the vein of blackened doom metal with a slower tempo and a more ominous atmosphere than the rest of the album. The most problematic aspect of this release (aside from the questionable morality of at least one of the members) is the previously hinted at vocal performance. It has been most often compared to Abbath's croaking delivery style, but I don't think it is as good as that. The words aren't really sung, but intoned in a little-changing monotone that sounds like a chain-smoking evil goblin with a sore throat. In other words they are an acquired taste and I'm not sure if it's one worth acquiring.
Anyway, to summarise, the music is great, the vocals are certainly unique, albeit divisive and there's a huge moral cloud hanging over the band, making it an interesting listen that leaves you with an ambiguous and uncomfortable feeling after.
Genres: Black Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2010
As -(16)- close in on thirty years of existence, they sound as pissed off as ever. This isn't the mere grumblings of grumpy old men, but the savage apoplexy of true rage at the state of things. The band's more veteran status has allowed their anger to become more focussed, no longer is this the general adolescent rage of bored and pissed-off teenagers, this is well-targeted, venomous exasperation. Musically this is loud and heavy down-tuned sludge riffs wrapped up in hardcore punk attitude and raging anger - anger at others (Harvester of Fabrication, Kissing The Choir Boy), anger at self (Agora (Killed by a Mountain Lion), Acid Tongue) and anger at the world in general ( Screw Unto Others). When trying to explain that the band attempted to inject some positivity into the album, guitarist and vocalist Bobby Ferry said "The best we could come up with is loving your dog so much, you'd end up killing yourself if the dog dies." Yet despite Ferry's claim, there is a sliver of positivity, particularly on Candy in Spanish and Summer of '96 where the lyrics refer to the hope that a broken man's children can give him and his wish for a better life for them, although even this is tinged with regret for his own desperate existence.
So, even though the album is almightily heavy and raw, seething with barely contained rage, it is also conversely quite an emotional experience, especially if you can identify with any of the lyrical themes, that may leave you feeling drained.
Genres: Sludge Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2020
Colosseum were formed in 2006 by Juhani Palomäki and Janne Rämö, both members of Finnish doom outfit Yearning, in order to explore doom's slowest and most monolithic sub-genre, Funeral Doom. Unfortunately they split in 2010 after three brilliant albums when Juhani Palomäki committed suicide at just age 32.
This album is a gorgeous testament to the man's art, an amazing album that is as close to funeral doom perfection as it is reasonable to expect, in my opinion. The atmosphere created is one of immense majesty, overlaid by a mournful sombreness made more poignant by the fate of the band's driving force. Feels like walking through a long-abandoned and ancient, yet still impressive, city such as the one featured in Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness or the ruins on the sacred island of Delos in Greece. A huge weight of history and accomplishment forgotten and dimmed by the passage of time, it's previous might and majesty now only remembered deep within the stone wrought by masons and sculptors long-gone.
The riffs are heaving and slow as you would expect, albeit certainly not the slowest tempo in funeral doom and the keys add a substantial layer to the atmosphere without swamping the sound at all. A number of guest musicians contribute classical instruments such as violin, cello, flute and trumpet for an even richer and more deeply mournful atmosphere. For me though, it is Juhani Palomäki's voice that really sets Colosseum apart, I absolutely love the timbre of his vocals, that deep, rasping growl that shakes you to your core is one of the most doom metal voices ever caught on record.
This album does seem to be the least well-liked of Colosseum's three full-lengths and I'm sorry for being so out of step, but this is one of my all-time favourites being both immaculately heavy and yet still remaining accessible due to it's generally shorter and relatively melodic songs.
Genres: Doom Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2009
I first crossed paths with RATM after catching the Freedom video on MTV and it's exposure of the injustices against Native Americans as personified in the heinous miscarriage of justice against Leonard Peltier (shit, some things never change...) Anyway the video had such an effect on my subconscious that when I saw this in my local CD store I grabbed it without thinking. I don't much like rap, apart from the odd album like Straight Outta Compton and It Takes a Nation of Millions so I've never given it much ear time and rap rock like the Red Hot Chilli Peppers leaves me cold, so this was a bit outside my comfort zone.
But, hell, this is one great record - angry and intense, but not in a misdirected "hit out at everyone" kind of way, but in an invigorating, energetic and focussed tirade against those who deserve it. I can't in all honesty say if I would dig this to the same degree without the political message, but I think the music is strong enough in it's own right to command respect. Testify, Calm Like a Bomb, Sleep Now in the Fire are all stone-cold classics as far as I'm concerned and the lyrical content elevates them even higher. This album is every bit as relevant today as when it was released over twenty years ago and that is a hell of a testament to it's passion and power.
Genres: Alternative Metal
Format: Album
Year: 1999
I took a shedload of mushrooms once and had a trip where I was soaring up among the clouds and I could see what looked like the whole world laid out below me. There was this giant tree that towered above everything else and it said to me "everything will be OK" and you know what, it was. The first part of Écailles de lune strongly reminds me of that as if that moment of hope was put into music and if that was all I got out of this, then that would be enough for me. Luckily, the second part of Écailles de lune is even better than the first and is my favourite track on the album, veering from frosty atmo-black to dreamy shoegaze effortlessly and seamlessly, both parts combining for a nineteen-minute epic of gorgeous music.
Side two kicks off with Percées de lumière, which is pretty solid and may be the most black metal track on the album. This is followed by a short and fairly pointless ambient piece before Solar Song comes floating in on a fluffy white cloud, shining it's rays of hope down on all below. The album closes with Sur l'océan couleur de fer, a dreamy piece that feels like floating away to a restful doze on a sunny hillside.
Some albums have a perfect time and mood and listening to this on a Sunday morning in early June just feels so right. It used to be Souvenirs d'un autre monde, but I think this has now taken over as my favourite Alcest album. Neige showing other, more ham-fisted exponents of blackgaze, exactly how delicately the genre should be approached.
Genres: Black Metal Post-Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2010
Edinburgh's King Witch have unleashed a bit of a monster with this, their second album. Released two years on from their well-received debut, Under the Mountain, the band have really upped the ante. Body of Light clocks in at a nudge over an hour, but as well as the overall length, the individual tracks are longer and each has expanded to fill all the available space afforded to them. This expanded format really suits the band's epic doom and the extended runtime allows the tracks to resolve themselves more satisfyingly. There is a nice variation in pacing throughout the album, whether it's kicking our asses with killer heavy metal as on the title track opener or Witches Mark or crushing us mercilessly with huge doom riffing as on Of Rock and Stone or Beyond the Black Gate, it does it with a style not all bands have the chops to be capable of.
I guess the band's most obvious feature is Laura Donnelly's amazing vocals, easily one of the most powerful female singers in metal, much in the vein of Benedictum's Veronica Freeman, but that is most definitely not the only selling point with this band. Jamie Gilchrist's guitar work is also outstanding, whether he's shredding a solo or crunching your bones with the force of his riffing, it makes for a powerful twin attack when unleashed alongside Laura's singing. The rhythm section are reliable, strong and on-point and the production is crystal clear, allowing every crunching riff or cymbal crash to be heard distinctly.
An impressive and highly recommended release for any lovers of epic doom or classic metal everywhere.
Genres: Doom Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2020
This was (and still is to some extent) a controversial record upon it's release as debate raged about whether it was even a metal album (which it is), let alone a black metal album (which it may or may not be), exacerbated I think by the "blasphemous" pink cover which couldn't be any further from the black and white monochrome aesthetic of BM (unless it was a rainbow, I suppose).
Blackgaze as a genre is a divisive issue in black metal circles and I can see why many adherents to BM orthodoxy would take against it, particularly as, generally, it has more in common with post-metal bands like Kauan rather than Mayhem, Darkthrone and even (early) Ulver. For me it's a genre who's releases I tend not to pre-judge before hearing (I know we shouldn't with anything, but come on, seriously, who never goes into an album without certain expectations?) The reason is that there are albums under this umbrella that I really like and many that I really don't, so I'm never quite sure which I'm gonna get. For me, this is one of the former, as it has more than enough of an atmospheric black metal influence to satisfy. The songs are airy and expansive, relying on repetition as do most atmo-black releases, along with the pummelling drums, tremolo picking and down-mixed shrieking vocals common to the genre. The post-metal aspect of the record, particularly the slower sections, add a certain melancholy air that, when combined with the faintly disturbing lyrical subject matter coming across as something akin to the internal monologue of a potential serial killer, produce an unsettling effect on the listener.
It's no great surprise that a band that could shake an, albeit small, corner of the musical world like this, hails from San Francisco, with it's history of being a prime mover in both the psychedelic and thrash metal movements, both of which were pretty big revolutions in their particular areas. That openness to new ideas and concepts are integral to Sunbather's success I believe, allowing Deafheaven to forge something original from what is essentially a very conservative genre, the importance of which shouldn't be understated, This is because, despite the lyrics, the BM blasting and the occasional hint of wistfulness, the overarching sound of Sunbather feels very positive (well it does to me anyway) and that is anathema to a lot of the black metal community. So of course the kvltists will scream that this has sold black metal out, but let's face it, they're always pissed off anyway, so that's kind of irrelevant. You really need to go into this without any preconceptions to get the most out of it. There may actually still be too much BM in this to appeal to many outside of the usual blackgaze fanbase and not enough for the BM hardcore, but despite this, for those willing to take it for what it is, there is a lot to like here.
Genres: Black Metal Post-Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2013
I have no religious affiliation and I don't believe in the occult. If I can't see it or at least have it explained using logic and rational argument then I tend not to put too much store in it. So saying, black metal's themes of satanism and the occult are merely thematic devices to my mind and, besides a couple of exceptions such as Ihsahn and Ghaal, the majority of exponents of black metal feel the same way. I put no more store in these themes than in fantasy tales of wizards and goblins. Of more concern, BM can sometimes be used as a means of expressing some unpleasant political viewpoints and promoting and almost celebrating self-destructive behaviour. However, I have no time for NSBM and DSBM doesn't much interest me, apart from a couple of noteworthy releases.
Anyway, to get to the point, Austin Lunn, aka Panopticon, is a far more positive force within black metal circles than is often the case and his well-publicised leftist views are a bit of an anomaly (at least publicly) amongst black metal musicians. Panopticon plays atmospheric black metal with folk elements, but where Austin sets himself apart is that the folk elements he employs are gleaned from Americana, particularly bluegrass, rather than the more usual European folk music tradition. He is a committed outdoorsman so the themes of nature in all it's guises is predominant in his musical themes. Where his experience differs from the majority of BM musicians, he also spent a few years working in social services where he gained an understanding and appreciation of the hardship some people face on a daily basis, so as I'm sure you can appreciate, his is a rare and original voice and viewpoint working within his chosen musical genre. However, don't be deceived into thinking that his views make him uncommitted as a black metal musician as even a brief exposure to his music will reassure you that he is, in fact, the real deal, not in the satan-worshipping, misanthropic sense, but in the returning to nature, respecting the past, uncompromising outsider sense.
So to Autumn Eternal, my second-favourite Panopticon album after Kentucky. Beginning with a gentle piece of bluegrass-inspired americana, Tamarack's Gold Returns, you may be lulled into a heavy-lidded sleepiness that leaves you unprepared for the sweeping majesty of Into the North Woods as it kicks in with it's busy drumming, post-metal inflected guitar and Austin's distant-sounding shrieks. As you take this in it soon becomes clear that this is a different kind of black metal. I'm sure you're thinking "Hmm.. black metal with post-metal means blackgaze", but this both hits harder and expresses more grandeur than any blackgaze I've ever heard. In fact this really isn't any kind of -gaze at all, being more direct and focussed than the haziness and absence that term implies, being very much "present". After the title track comes one of my favourites, Oaks Ablaze, which sets off in a blistering wall of sound with a powerful thumping melody before hitting a still space at around the halfway mark of it's eight minutes where it pauses for breath before launching into it's pummelling crescendo. Following track Sleep to the Sound of the Waves Crashing follows a similar structure, where the quiet middle section is, in fact, like falling asleep to the sound of softly crashing waves, before chiming, bell-like notes signal a hurtling climax to the track. In fact this structural device of soaring, expansive songs that hit an eye-of-the-storm moment of calm that each expresses differently as a counterpoint to the more "bombastic" sections is prevalent throughout the whole album and binds the album as a cohesive whole.
This is obviously an album made by a person comfortable with where he is musically and confident in his ability to express himself through that music. Professional sometimes sounds like damning with faint praise, but A.L. is a consummate professional and an absolute master of his trade. In a genre that has more than it's fair share of average musicians, poor songwriters and reprehensible characters Panopticon can stand proudly, head held high, as a true class act.
Genres: Black Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2015
Ireland's Mael Mórdha are not a band I have been particularly well acquainted with. The only album of their's I've listened to much being 2013's Damned When Dead which wasn't bad, but didn't really inspire me to check out the rest of their back catalogue. So when I saw that the instrumental core of the band were forming a new doom outfit after placing MM on hiatus, my reaction was pretty much "[shrug] so what?!" Well more fool me, because Death the Leveller are superb and exactly the type of doom band I dig most. They play the kind of epic doom metal that pays enormous homage to the classic heavy metal bands of days of yore that Solstice have made their own since New Dark Age twenty-odd years ago.
This is ostensibly their debut album as the self-titled release is officially an EP despite being 38 minutes long (only a couple of minutes shorter than this), but that is neither here nor there. In common with that first release, this comprises four tracks hovering somewhere around the 10-minute mark - a perfect length that allows the tracks to settle in and weave their magic whilst feeling neither over-long nor underdeveloped. The bands chief currency are huge, booming riffs that are expansive and doom-laden as if, like a musical Nostradamus, they presage the coming of some all-consuming disaster, either on a personal level or in a wider sense. Vocals are provided by Denis Dowling who's previous bands include little-known Irish tech-thrashers Cursed Earth. Denis' vocals are strong, yet still emotionally charged, performing a brilliant balancing act between the power of a Morris Ingram combined with Patrick Walker's ability to convey real emotional fragility (check out So They May Face The Rising Sun for an example of what I'm getting at). I find it difficult to believe that a singer this good has not become more well known in metal circles.
Shane Cahill's strong drumming carries the songs forward and maintains the momentum while Dave Murphy's bass backs up the guitar riffing to add extra depth and power to the overall sound. All in all this is a band that has obviously honed their songwriting and technical skills and have found it easy to gel from their time together in Mael Mordha. Couple this with the addition of such an accomplished vocalist as Dowling and you have one hell of a doom metal band. I'm impressed and believe me, I am one cynical, jaded bastard nowadays so that's saying something!
Genres: Doom Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2020
Mysterious Germans Hexenbrett unleash their debut full-length album a year on from the Erste Beschwörung EP, a release that caused a minor splash in black metal circles back in January last year. If you read the blurb on the Bandcamp site then you would be forgiven for expecting an album that completely breaks the black metal mold which, to be honest, is a bit hyperbolic. What it does do however, is heavily raid the Darkthrone back catalogue and their penchant for marrying black metal and traditional heavy metal and diverts it into an exhilharating side street that runs parallel to the more mainstream world of black metal. Weirdly, the track titles are in a number of languages - German, Czech, Italian, French and Spanish, but most translate to a title you would expect from Glen Danzig or King Diamond - The Tomb Of The Living Dead, Corpse Burner and Through Seven Doors To Hell.
It's an enjoyable album that doesn't feel as po-faced as a lot of black metal and would probably be great for a midnight party in the local churchyard.
Genres: Black Metal Heavy Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2020
Armagedda have always revolved around the core duo of guitarist/vocalist Graav, mainman of solo project LIK and bassist/guitarist Andreas Petterson, vocalist of Stilla. Beginning life as a trio named Volkermord in 1999, they released a twenty minute demo before a permanent name change in 2000. Despite a bit of chopping and changing of the line up, the duo released a number of EPs and splits and three albums before calling it a day in 2004. Fifteen years later they released a couple of digital singles via Nordvis and here in 2020 at the height of Coronageddon, they are properly back with a full-length album, released on digital and CD, again by Nordvis.
Svindeldjup Ättestup is medium-paced black metal with a real old-school vibe, somewhat unsurprisingly for a Swedish band that dates back to the 1990s. Instead of an all-out, chaotic blastathon there are actually some pretty good tunes here, such as Ond Spiritism. A couple of tracks are unusually slow (for black metal) and although I would hesitate to tag them as doom metal they are certainly of a tempo more in keeping with doom. There is still a frosty and hateful vibe perpetrating the album and believe me when the duo let loose with the blasting, it rips.
All in all a decent comeback album and one that still feels relevant despite the time elapsed since their previous release. I'd give it 3.75 / 5.00.
Genres: Black Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2020
Brume's first EP Donkey, released in 2015, was much lauded by fans of female-fronted doom metal, so this follow-up, the band's debut full-length release was much anticipated. Thankfully Rooster built on that early promise and didn't disappoint the fan base the band had built up during the intervening two years.
The album gets right down to business and opener Grit and Pearls is a ten-minute track that begins with some slow and heavy riffing overlaid by Susan McMullan's strong, yet light, vocal touch, increasing in tempo as it builds to a climax and setting a high standard for the rest of the album. It continues in similar vein for most of it's runtime, inviting the accusation of a lack of variety, I suppose, although someone who would make such a complaint is probably not much of a fan of doom metal anyway!
The album does hit a softer patch towards the end of Call the Serpent's Bluff which then runs into the acoustic ballad Welter that sounds more like Tori Amos or Patti Smith than Pallbearer and is a nice, airy interlude to relieve the crushing weight of the music up to that point. This, in turn, leads into closing epic, Tradewind, the album's longest track, which also begins gently before once more dropping the doom.
This is overall an an album of strong riffing, a powerful and well-defined rhythm section and nicely contrasting female vocals. There's no heavy metal histrionics, there isn't even much of a solo until Tradewinds and the album exhibits a satisfying discipline in it's songwriting, being absolutely a straight-up doom metal record and is completely free of any "witchy" occult referencing psychedelic touches that is so common amongst female-fronted doom acts. One for the fans of "true doom metal".
Genres: Doom Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2017
L'Impero Delle Ombre (The Empire of the Shadows) were formed in Puglia in 1995 and have been based around brothers Giovanni Cardellino (vocals) and Andrea Cardellino (guitar) since their inception. Hardly a prolific band, their debut album wasn't released until 2004 and this, their second (and currently final) album was released after another 7 year wait. Fortunately it's almost good enough to be worth it. This is an album of traditional doom metal with a real 1970s vibe and some good, old-fashioned, Italian quirkiness thrown in for good measure that anyone familiar with Paul Chain's work will immediately recognize. The brilliant cover art suggests a 70s horror film, as does the scratchy intro track, opening the album with the impression of entering an old-fashioned cinema, all over-stuffed seats and velvet curtains across the screen.
The riffs are heavily influenced by eighties NWOBHM, the aforementioned Mr. Paul Chain and seventies hard rock, particularly Deep Purple, at several points sounding like a live jam during Highway Star, as on Divoratori della Notte. There's plenty of variation, to the point of progginess, particularly in the deployment of a veritable arsenal of keyboards from Oleg Smirnoff who's Hammond organ and Moog flourishes are awesome - seriously, check out the end of L'Oscura Persecuzione! The songs are quite catchy and are certainly memorable enough for you to suddenly find yourself humming the melodies long after the album has ended. It's almost as if this album has tried to capture my entire experience as a rock and metal fan from the seventies to the present in a single album. In fact I would mark this higher if not for Cosmochronos, which I feel doesn't flow right and I could have done without the bonus track cover of Snowblind.
All in all a real hidden gem of Italian progressive doom that I wouldn't hesitate to recommend.
Genres: Doom Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2011
I'm not usually much impressed by a lot of Blackgaze, it being a bit too twee in a lot of cases for my taste, but I was quite a fan of Violet Cold's previous album kOsmik. This.. nah, not so much. It's merging of blackgaze with 90's-style electronica and trance just doesn't click for me. Most unforgiveable is the horrible "helium gas" voice that is employed on a couple of the early tracks that make it sound like some sort of shitty novelty record. The black metal parts are still pretty decent actually, but for me, this album is a huge disappointment and a backward step, following on so close after last year's far superior release. I guess I'm really just an old traditionalist at heart, in which case this was probably never meant for me. As with kOsmik there is an instrumental version available, so I might give that a try at some point to see if it works any better.
Genres: Black Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2020
Ashtar are a husband and wife duo, Marko and Nadine Lehtinen from Basel in Switzerland (although Marko is Finnish), who play an unholy hybrid of doom/black/sludge metal. Five years on from their debut, Ilmasaari, they have finally released this, their second album after moving from local label Czar of Bullets to Eisenwald. Kaikuja is apparently Finnish for "Echoes" which is apt as it's deep, resonant riffing sounds as if echoing from some vast underground chamber.
The album kicks straight in with some righteous, blasting, black metal as opener Aeolus grabs the listener by the throat, it's lyrics of mountain-top winds being classic BM fare, but the track soon morphs into a more sludgy affair as the tempo slows.
Second track, Between Furious Clouds, at 13 minutes is an unrelenting, pounding slab of bass-heavy, monolithic doom telling a tale of a mythical cosmic giant and is where Nadine's violin makes it's first appearance on the album, if only briefly.
The remaining three tracks, Bloodstones, The Closing and (She is) Awakening continue the blackened doom assault, the dense, heaving riffs contrasting with Nadine's caustic blackened shrieks to conjure an ominous and smouldering atmosphere. (She is) Awakening ends with the dissonant cacophony of tortured violin that brings the album to a suitable close.
I was a big fan of debut Ilmasaari and I still feel that that is the better album, albeit marginally, due to it's greater emphasis on the sludge and doom elements with the production sounding better too, but make no mistake, this is a good album if you like the more extreme end of the doom metal world.
Genres: Black Metal Doom Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2020
Rank and foetid death metal that sounds like it has been incarcerated in a deep, dank hole, and covered in rotting corpses for about thirty years. I love the crustiness of their downtuned chugging and the growling, gurgling vocals add an extra layer of filth to their sound. OK, it's not quite as great as 2008's Buried Death, but it's pretty damn close.
Genres: Death Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2019
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.
Genres: Doom Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2020
I've been an admirer of Elephant Tree since their 2014 debut, Theia and already this is my favourite album of theirs. It takes the psychedelic fuzz of early 70s heavy psych and marries it with the downtuned riffs of doom metal for a weighty, yet trippy musical experience. The vocals are more reminiscent of psych-influenced acts, particularly UK neo-psychedelia bands like The Charlatans or Kula Shaker with an ephemeral texture (a technique quite common with female vocalists, but not so much with their male counterparts). The Fall Chorus provides a reflective intermission at around the mid-point with an acoustic track that begins like The Byrds with a bluegrass breakdown. My favourite though has got to be the closing track, Broken Nails, that once again begins gently before the heaving doom riff kicks in as the track begins it's ascent to it's towering climax. I've got a feeling this is going to be a real grower.
Genres: Stoner Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2020
Mourning Beloveth kick us off with their offering I Saw a Dying Child in Your Arms - and it's a real beauty. Mournful and atmospheric with an obvious doom aesthetic, although it is actually a "clean" song apart from the backing vocals during the climax. Stripped down, lacking in either fuzzed-up riffs or growling vocals this is still allowed to build in the manner of all the best doom tracks. Quite a moving track.
Ruins of Beverast's contribution is Silhouettes of Death's Grace, a track that is doomy in it's atmosphere, but is heavily influenced by RoB's early black metal beginnings. It has an overall disconcerting quality to it, as if you can never quite pin it down. The guitars often sound eerily akin to church bells as they chime over the sonorous doom of the backing riff, particularly in the latter half after the midway tempo change when we get a whiff of atmo-black blasting.
An interesting release with two contrasting, yet complementary tracks of unconventional doom metal.
Genres: Doom Metal
Format:
Year: 2020
Italian veterans Forgotten Tomb's tenth album features melodic black metal with a large influence from doom metal in it's riffing and pacing. Also incorporates some post-metal into the structure of the songs for a reasonably modern, if somewhat sterile-sounding effect. Not bad but unlikely to live overlong in the memory.
Genres: Black Metal Doom Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2020
Etoile Filante's black metal is of the cosmic variety. The seamless incorporation of synths adds the spaciness to their sound, imparting an expansiveness that transports the listener's mind's eye on a journey into the heavens and beyond. Fans of Mesarthim will undoubtedly know what to expect as this is very much in that vein.
Genres: Black Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2020
England's quintessential black metal outfit recorded live at the Bloodstock Festival in 2017. Three of the five tracks are from their best album, The Mercian Sphere, so a great choice of material. The performance is solid, the songs are sweeping epics that hark back to the time of Dark Age English legends and thus as a representation of the band's live shows it must go down as a huge success.
Genres: Black Metal
Format: Live
Year: 2019
England's best black metal band return after a four year break since their last black metal release, their folk music itch having been thoroughly scratched with 2018's The Hallowing of Heirdom and their Wolcensmen project.
The Reckoning Dawn begins quite aggressively with a fairly muscular track, Misdeeds of Faith before launching into a fourth part of The Wayfarer which was originally a three-part epic on 2010's Mercian Sphere LP. This referencing back to the earlier release seems to intentionally signpost that the album is a return to the sound of the band's earliest albums and the sweeping, thunderous atmo-black that they built their reputation on. Indeed, it is a great example of the style and is a worthy successor to those early albums... and yet, I can't help but feel a slight tinge of disappointment. Much as I love Winterfylleth's particular style, I was really excited by the direction they went in with side two of 2016's The Dark Hereafter, the almost doom metal pacing of Green Cathedral and the chanted vocals of Led Astray in the Forest Dark so, great though it undoubtedly is, The Reckoning Dawn's return to atmo-black orthodoxy is an ever-so-slight backward step in my opinion. Still, the glass is half full and this is a tremendous album nonetheless.
Genres: Black Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2020
I've really enjoyed Sojourner's output to date. There is something that speaks to me in their sweeping, expansive atmo-black compositions that conjure gorgeous mental pictures of the landscape of the band's home country of New Zealand. They inspire the same feelings inside me as the best of the UK's black metal acts, Saor and Winterfylleth, which is not really surprising as all three are heavily influenced by their respective country's natural surroundings and New Zealand strikes me as very similar to the more remote and unspoiled regions of Britain.
The eight tracks here are long enough to allow the music to breathe and impart their vision of the natural world. The vocals are of the harsh male / ethereal female dichotomy and there is liberal use of keyboards throughout to add layers to the lush atmosphere.
I've marked this down compared to the previous two albums because it feels a little too aggressive this time around and I feel this increased aggression is less effective in it's portrayal of the band's aesthetic. Still a good slab of atmospheric black metal though for those who enjoy the more folksy side of the genre.
Genres: Black Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2020
They may not be the hippest band in the death metal canon, but sod that, I happen to like Vader! At this point in their career they have a tried and tested formula that has stood the ravages of time. Thrashy death metal that pays respect to their forebears such as Slayer, Death and Morbid Angel, doesn't break any rules, but still kicks ass. The one thing, for me, that has always set Vader apart is the vocals. I just really dig the timbre of Peter's vocals and have to admit that he is my favourite death metal vocalist, so I've always looked upon new Vader releases favourably. All the same, this is solid stuff with some damn fine Slayer-esque solos to boot so hopefully it will appeal to more metalheads than just me.
Genres: Death Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2020