Sonny's Reviews
By now everyone knows the story of the genesis of Syntheosis, a collaboration between Oranssi Pazuzu (one of my favourite black metal bands) and Dark Buddha Rising (about whom, before this release, I knew absolutely nothing) for a Roadburn commision that was intended as a live only entity, but took on a life of it's own, finally resulting in this studio release. Musically it's extremely difficult to pigeon-hole, as can be evidenced by the disparate genre tags on this very site - I'll go with blackened, spacey, atmo-sludge, heavily-influenced by the 1970s, of particularly King Crimson, but there are also traces of Hawkwind and even Tangerine Dream in there. The three vocalists allow for great variety from gurgling black metal shrieks to the almost post-punk female-sounding singing on Wake up the Possessor and the twin drummers hammer out some extremely compelling tribalistic rhythms. I have found myself increasingly drawn towards albums that focus heavily on atmosphere and this certainly falls into that bracket, the whole feeling like the soundtrack to a journey through some unsettlingly dark dimension similar to the one visited by the Event Horizon in the film of the same name. I must admit that whilst listening to the album I found it extremely easy to imagine it being performed live and although this is an impressive listen, I can't help feeling it is even more so in a live setting. One of 2019's must-hear metal albums.
Genres: Doom Metal Sludge Metal Post-Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2019
I feel certain there is a hefty tome to be written concerning the relationship between the tales of HP Lovecraft and metal. Doom metal in particular is suited to HPL's tales of lurking horrors and creeping terror, as it is most successful when creating an atmosphere of unease and melancholy.
Burial in the Woods are a solo doom metal outfit of Germany's Gerileme, a veteran of several underground doom and black metal bands such as Idisenfluch, Osteon and Ravnsvart and are one of the most recent bands to plough this particularly fruitful thematic furrow. This, the debut release under the Burial in the Woods moniker, consists of fairly orthodox, slow doom riffs in the vein of Lord Vicar, Apostle of Solitude et al with skirling guitar work layered on top and black metal-influenced low, shrieking vocals. There are several well-worn tropes of Lovecraft-related metal - chanted, ritualistic vocal sections and a liberal use of (seemingly real) church organ (particularly on the instrumental Ecclesia Dagoni) meant to exemplify the blasphemous rituals of the devotees of Dagon and others of the Cthulhian canon. This may all sound a little clichéd and underwhelming, but Gerileme has managed to weave these prosaic elements into a whole that has the, presumably intended, effect of producing an atmosphere of unseen horror and dread, blasphemous rituals carried out in delapidated New England fishing village chapels as befits the source material.
The twenty-four minute closing track, Gölgeler Alemi, is a reworking of a song from the solitary album by one of Gerileme's old band's Negatum which, other than the length, with it's lyrics telling of an unseen Purgatory for departed souls, doesn't differ greatly from the rest of the album either thematically or musically.I
Genres: Doom Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2019
These Parisian death doom merchants have been a favourite of mine since their Where Wolves Once Dwelled demo ep, but this has exceeded even my expectations. I mean, what kind of balls does it take to begin a debut album with a drum solo? Chthonic rituals indeed, the vocals gurgle up as if from some Lovecraftian charnel pit and the doomy riffs suggest long-forbidden rites of summoning. This is death doom with a real old-school vibe, taking the listener right back to the heady days of the late 80s and early 90s.
Genres: Death Metal Doom Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2018
Kicks off with a track about Michael Moorcock's Eternal Champion, so you know we're in Cirith Ungol territory here! Dense riffs and searing solos, solid as steel rhythm section and then there's Sarah Kitteringham's vocals, as awesome as any Messiah Marcolin ever delivered. If you have any love at all for truly epic doom metal then make a bee line for this album.
Genres: Doom Metal Heavy Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2019
I know nothing of musical theory. I have no idea what microtonalism means. I don't know what a polyrhythm or a tempo ratio is. Adam Kalmbach (aka Jute Byte) does however and offers a baffling (to me, anyway) introduction to this album discussing how these things relate to this record, on the album's Bandcamp page. Of course, all this goes right over my head. However, what I do know is that all this makes for an original and challenging black metal record that breaks away from the endless imitators and plagiarists of the modern BM scene, going against the current trend of making black metal more accessible (and, presumably, profitable). This is not an easy listen and, I suppose, you'll either love it or hate it but, as such, it should be applauded for getting under people's skin and dividing opinion in a way that extreme metal and black metal, in particular, used to.
Genres: Avant-Garde Metal Black Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2016
Thunderin', pummellin' death metal, kicking off with the killer "Beg for Life" that leaves us doing just that and doesn't let up until the closing notes of the incendiary "Heat Death" a mere thirty-eight minutes later. This is my idea of death metal, an album that references back to early 90's death, retaining some of the elements of thrash, but with a thoroughly modern ethos.
Genres: Death Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2019
One of the better thrash albums to emerge since the early 90's sounded the death knell for the genre that changed the face of metal forever. It seems that South America has now become quite a hotbed for "the genre that just won't die" and these Chileans may just have trumped most of the other Latin neo-thrashers with their neck-snapping, fist-pumping debut. It's no hyperbole to claim that Misconception doesn't feel hugely out of place when weighed against early classics by the likes of Kreator, Sodom and even Metallica - the Cliff Burton-esque bass work of Ignacio Arévalo is of particular note. Throwing out incredible riff after incredible riff then melting your inner ear with his searing solos lead guitarist Felipe Alvarado must be absolutely knackered after this, which is probably why he keeps the vocals to a minimum (although they are perfectly fine). It will take a bolt out of the blue to produce a better thrash album this year. Count me impressed!
Genres: Thrash Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2019
Aggressive and muscular thrash that also borrows from death and black metal, similar to the band's compatriots Blood Tsunami. There are very few tempo changes or variation, but a guarantee that your ears will be relentlessly pummelled for thirty-odd minutes which, as you know if you are any fan of thrash, is no bad thing. The downside is that the production sounds muddied and blunts the assault a little but, to be fair, this is a minor niggle. Recommended for fans of Kreator, Slayer, Sodom etc.
Genres: Thrash Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2019
Andavald are another band to hail from Iceland's burgeoning dissonant black metal scene. This five-track album is book-ended by a couple of unsettling piano-led instrumental pieces, the meat of the album being three tracks lasting a bit over thirty minutes of well-written black metal. The album's slightly uneasy atmosphere isn't merely down to the dissonance employed on the tracks, but also the pacing which is, in the main, much slower than is usual for black metal. I really like the album's overall effect and prefer it to quite a few of it's more illustrious counterparts.
Genres: Black Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2019
This is classic funeral / death doom material with the album's four tracks clocking in at a mammoth 83 minutes. Thematically, the album deals with the human race's apparently suicidal need to be the instrument of it's own destruction through unmitigated consumption of the planet's resources and pathological voyeurism. These themes are very much suited to the morbid and sorrowful atmosphere created by these french alchemists, the towering walls of sound washing everything away to leave the listener overwhelmed, exhausted and resigned to their fate, like the people of the album's cover queueing passively for their own execution. Absolutely recommended for fans of Esoteric, Evoken, Bell Witch et al.
Genres: Doom Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2019
With vocals straight from the early-Burzum "anguished, tortured soul" school of singing and a dissonant guitar that sounds like it was recorded in some long-forgotten subterranean crypt, Sortilegia summon the true spirit of black metal, unholy and disturbing!
Genres: Black Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2017
Soaring guitar work, anguished vocals and a particularly pleasing drum sound make this a terrific addition to the genre. Despite the obligatory delicate instrumental track (To Transcend) and the addition of Alexandra Morte's haunting female vocals on closer If You Leave, the album doesn't sound cliched or forced, but rather the natural expression of a band on top form.
Genres: Black Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2016
Excellent atmospheric black metal from Poland that's right up there with the masters of the genre in terms of creating rich soundscapes that reflect the majesty and harshness of the natural world. Close your eyes and let it wash over you and you can imagine yourself wandering through some magnificent, snow-laden and frost-bitten polish forest, at once beautiful and yet so unforgiving. Exactly what I look for in an atmospheric black metal release.
Genres: Black Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2016
Crawling, dense doom metal with a seriosly heavy bottom end. More straight-up doom than the Irishmen's last couple of sludge-tinged releases. Featuring earth-shaking riffs and echoing, incorporeal vocals that seem to seep up from the earth's depths, this should satisfy any lover of true, undiluted doom metal.
Genres: Doom Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2019
An hour of epic medieval-themed french black metal. Black metal blended with medieval folk music certainly isn't an original idea, but despite this these two guys have managed to make an album that sounds fresh and exciting. The songwriting is first rate with some really nice melodies. Tulzcha's playing is exemplary throughout and the vocals aren't overly harsh. Personally, I found it to be a stirring release and can't recommend it enough.
Genres: Black Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2019
Two lengthy laments that weave together elements of Post-Rock, Sludge, Doom, Black Metal, Ambient and more into a couple of mournful tapestries of despair. Both tracks begin serenely enough, but soon descend into anguish as the grindingly heavy riffs and shrieking vocals kick in, which subside back into introspective calm, followed by more anguish - real Bipolar Doom.
Despite the length, neither track becomes boring, with more than enough going on to satisfy all but the most impatient of doom-heads.
Genres: Doom Metal Drone Metal Sludge Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2012
Over an hour of brilliant doom / black metal that has a very progressive feel to it. The integration of the doom and black aspects of the tracks works very well and is the product of a band that appear to understand both genres instinctively. The production isn't the best, but adds to the atmosphere of the music, and particularly the vocals, with their almost whispered blackened delivery, sounding like a disembodied voice beseeching the listener from the beyond. As a lover of both doom and black metal, this album is like a gift from the Outer Reaches.
Genres: Black Metal Doom Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2015
OK, so it's no departure from the female-fronted doom template laid down by the likes of Windhand and Blood Ceremony but I honestly love this shit and still haven't yet had my fill, so Doom On!
Genres: Doom Metal Stoner Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2018
Another worthy addition to the Italian Doom canon from Sicily's Haunted. With huge riffs and great vocals from singer Cristina Chimirri, the Windhand influence is unmistakeable, which is certainly no bad thing as far as I'm concerned, seeing as Dorthia Cottrell & co are one of my favourite bands and can't put albums out fast enough for my liking! Proper Doom for Discerning Doomheads...
Genres: Doom Metal Stoner Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2016
The Flight of Sleipnir's 2017 album, Skadi, is one of contrasting sounds, not merely concentrating on the heavy, doomier side of things. Opener, Awaken, starts off heavily enough, but then changes pace with a nice, mellow, clean-vocal section before kicking down the door again. Second track, completing side one, Tenebrous Haze is the only unrelentingly metal track, complete with mighty riffs and harsh vocals. Side two opens with Earthen Shroud, the first half of which is a laidback psychedelic number, reminiscent of bands like Procul Harum, but steadily the track builds up to a crescendo, fired by anticipation. Voices is, ironically, a pastoral, acoustic instrumental number, that projects an air of quiet calm before best track Falcon White closes out the album in epic style. Unusually for a doom outfit, this has quite an uplifting tone and is one of the most positive-sounding doom albums I've ever heard.
Genres: Doom Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2017
I love HP Lovecraft's tales and I'm always partial to a short catchy number, so Arkham Witch's 2015 full-length is right up my street. Coming on like a doom metal Ramones, or the unholy spawn of Cathedral and The Misfits this album is chock-full of genuine sing-a-long metal. Twenty tracks in all, most clocking in at only two minutes and change, each based on a different HPL story. To be honest, I've never been 100% sure if AW aren't just taking the piss, but who gives a shit, if they can knock out an album that's just this much FUN..
Genres: Heavy Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2015
A fairly insipid slice of gothic doom that becomes tedious way before the almost 70 minutes of the album are done. The songs are so similar that it all merges into one long dirge. Like gazing at a grey sky on an interminable, drizzly day.
Genres: Doom Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2011
This follow-up to 2011's Tahoma is another triumph of US nature-themed black metal. The songs segue effortlessly from pastoral folk-influenced acoustic passages to blistering BM, evoking the dual-faced spirit of the natural world, in both it's beauty and brutality. Impressive.
Genres: Black Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2015
Atmospheric Black Metal is one of my favourite musical genres when done well and here Alda do it very well indeed. Like compatriots Panopticon, Alda manage to conjure up visions of forests, streams and mountains in the mind's eye using only basic black metal instrumentation (with the occasional acoustic supplementation) and a whole lot of skill and imagination. The tracks on offer here are just so well done that you never even notice how lo-fi it all is, either. Excellent stuff and if you're at all interested in USBM then check it out.
Genres: Black Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2011
Ahab's second album and follow-up to Call of the Wretched Sea is not as relentlessly crushing as that monstrous classic of funeral doom, the atmosphere relieved by passages of lightness with cleaner vocals and softer acoustic sections and although I understand the band's wish to develop, for me, this is a step down from the debut and a dilution of their sound. Don't misunderstand, this is a very good album and when the band do lay on the heavy funereal dirges, then they are still able to crush the air from your chest with a mountain of sound, it's just that I wanted more of that!
Genres: Doom Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2009
This second full-length album from Sweden's Stilla, takes an avant-garde sound similar to the kind of things Ihsahn did on his first few solo records and forces it into a more straightforward black metal template. The resulting dichotomy makes for an original voice in the crowded BM scene. It's refreshing to hear a band doing something a little different and not just rehashing old Mayhem or Darkthrone riffs or wandering into the overcrowded realm of atmospheric BM. I must admit, I wasn't initially gripped, but give it a chance, as I think it's an album that rewards patience and just gets better with each subsequent listen as it's complexity is unravelled. It may not be completely successful 100% of the time, but credit the band for having the integrity to play music they believe in.
Genres: Black Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2014
I am mightily impressed by this Metal hybrid, that has a Black Metal body, but a Doom Metal heart. Undoubtedly the album is rooted in black metal, but the doom aesthetic really shows through and the atmosphere created is one of great melancholy and, yes, dread. Oh, and I forgot to mention, it's heavy as fuck! I'm impressed.
Genres: Black Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2016
My two favourite music genres are doom and black metal and nobody combines the two better than Yith. Throw in a Lovecraftian bent to the lyrics, musing on long-abandoned ancient ruins and unseen lurking terrors and the result may be my perfect album. A bleak and hopeless contemplation on the insignificance of man's existence in a universe that measures the passage of time in eons.
Was and still is, my Album of the Year for 2018.
Genres: Black Metal Doom Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2018
Huge, heaving swells of sound, a growling, gurgling voice from the oceans very depths and the huge malevolent eye staring from the album's cover can only really point to one theme - the emergence of the dread lord Cthulhu from deep within R'lYeh and the impending destruction of all mankind. At once conveying both the crushing pressure of the sea depths and the expansiveness and sheer mind-destroying scale of the inter-stellar spaces, there are few better examples of a real atmosphere of iminent and inescapable doom. The final ambient track, Entreaties to the Primaeval Chaos finishes the album perfectly, documenting the ritual chant to raise man's nemesis and his answering stirrings. All in all this is a true classic of funeral doom that has few equals.
Genres: Doom Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2005
Skogen are yet another band of a growing number, who are breaking out of the artificial genre confines imposed on them by metal's conventions. Their nature-themed, atmospheric black metal sound has been expanded with elements of folk, progressive and doom metal. This can only be a good thing for extreme metal as we are spared endless regurgitation of the same basic concepts and can once more look forward to new releases with a genuine excitement and anticipation.
Genres: Black Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2018
One of the best trad metal albums I've heard in absolutely ages, as we should probably expect from a band with this kind of pedigree. Their uniquely off-the-wall sound certainly helps set them apart from the rest of the herd. Let's hope that what bands like Slough Feg and Smoulder are doing heralds a new Golden Age for traditional heavy metal.
Genres: Heavy Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2019
I love DoN's take on the atmospheric black metal genre and bought this after hearing their 2015 album Umbras de Barbagia. This EP is an excellent precursor to that absolute classic of an album and one I would recommend to any lover of Cascadian Black Metal in the vein of Wolves in the Throne Room.
Genres: Black Metal
Format: EP
Year: 2014
A hefty dose of swedish "true" doom that is as understated as it is intense. The six tracks are driven by a super-solid rhythm section, on which the disembodied vocals and sometimes crushing, sometimes airy, guitar work of Thomas Jäger are hung. To sound so heavy, seemingly so effortlessly, is a real achievement, like watching a genuine artist painting a masterpiece and thinking "Fuck, I wish I could do that". Impressive.
Genres: Doom Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2015
With a lighter production job and a couple more psych moments, this is not quite as ball-crushingly heavy (and awesome!) as previous album, the high-watermark Vaenir, but still a very good slab of Scandi-True-Doom from one of it's primary proponents.
Genres: Doom Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2017
An impressive debut release by this Icelandic black metal outfit. The ambitious songwriting and excellent musicianship remind me of 1990's Enslaved, with an almost progressive feel to some of the tracks. Saying that, they can also let rip with some good old black metal fury, as evidenced on the opener Songur Heiftar. Definitely a band to keep an eye on.
Genres: Black Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2015
Lord Vicar are one of the "Guardians of True Doom", featuring ex-members of Reverend Bizarre, Revelation, Count Raven and Saint Vitus and this is their best album to date. Kicking off with the seventeen-minute epic, Sulphur, Charcoal and Saltpetre, this goes on to deliver 70 minutes of ass-kicking, gut-crunching doom metal that could level entire city blocks! Powerful and mournful, this is classic scandinavian doom metal.
Genres: Doom Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2019
This live recording features complete reproductions of two of Kauan's recent albums, 2013's Pirut and 2015's superb Sorni Nai. The musicianship and sound recording are excellent, as is the source material and I do love a good live album, but I can't really imagine why you would particularly listen to these versions over the studio originals. It does perfectly illustrate what an accomplished band Kauan are, though, as the performance is pretty much faultless.
Genres: Doom Metal
Format: Live
Year: 2017
Haunting and atmospheric Post-rock from Russia, in the form of a concept album telling the story of the Dyatlov Pass incident - the mysterious disappearance of a group of hikers in the Urals in the. 1950's. This really is an excellent album, encompassing aspects of doom, black metal and softer instrumentation, in particular a beautiful and affecting piano sound that is woven through the majority of the album and even, for me anyway, leaves a more lasting impression than the louder more "metal" aspects of the album. A real triumph of multi-layered, thoughtful music and a definite must-hear.
Genres: Post-Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2015
While Darkthrone retain the roots of their black metal origins, they don't release out and out black metal albums anymore (nor have they for a very long time). Their latest, Old Star, sees them move into more doomy territory. Sounding like a cross between Bathory and Black Sabbath they have unleashed some of their best riffs in ages. A mention must also go to the meaty production job on this album, producing one of the best-sounding albums of their career (and which also suits the more doomy material on offer here).
Genres: Black Metal Heavy Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2019
Blut aus Nord are a band I enjoy, yet strangely haven't listened to anything like enough, so I come to this side project of BaN's Vindsval (admittedly drawn to it by Dehn Sora's enigmatic cover art), not really sure what to expect. What I got was an album of intelligent industrial post-metal that does seem to justify it's existence as a side project release, whilst still retaining the influence of the band that spawned it.
Genres: Industrial Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2019