Candlemass – The Door To Doom
We’ve had Blade Runner 2049, Jurassic World and a new Star Wars trilogy – the modern world loves a belated sequel. But for Johan Langquist, the vocalist who disappeared from the doom genre after lending his voice to one of its seminal albums over three decades ago, the pressure is on more than most. He could so easily have stayed in the shadows avoiding a potential Electric Boogaloo, but has instead returned a full 32 years later to record this follow-up to Candlemass’ now legendary LP Epicus Doomicus Metallicus. Thankfully for him, The Door To Doom, which rounds out the band’s discography into a full dozen albums, is a fitting tribute to both the band and the genre’s enduring legacy.
The genre Candlemass helped to define after adding melancholy atmospheres and grand operatic vocals to the groundwork laid by Black Sabbath and later the likes of Witchfinder General, Saint Vitus, Trouble and Pentagram, has flourished in recent years. The scene is awash with all forms of weird and wonderful fresh takes on an established genre, but there’s always a place for veterans to whom we undoubtedly owe so much. Yet Candlemass are no legacy act – the band have seldom been ones to meddle with what continues to be such an effective approach, but that sound has remained unrivalled in spite of countless bands taking heavy inspiration from them. Here, their penchant for heavy-handed dramatics and gargantuan songwriting is on full display. Founding member Leif Edling remains an ever consistent forger of riffs, and whilst Langquist, now in his mid 50s, may not have the range he once did, he still outclasses most, with a weathered, raspier rendition of the voice that once gave us the epic heights of ‘Solitude’. As dark and heavy as the Swedish veterans’ music is, it’s always been first and foremost fun – from the monstrous grooves to the exhilarating solos – and Langquist seems to understand this, fully embracing an air of melodrama in his performance that only adds to the effervescence of it all.
Despite fronting a band whose output has never fallen too below the mark, his presence seemingly breathes new life into the band. Sabbathian riffs of gargantuan proportions (‘House Of Doom’ kicks off with a particularly overt reference to the Godfathers of Metal, not to mention Iommi’s own electrifying solo on ‘Astorolus – The Great Octopus’) lead proceedings, brimming with an exuberant energy that is so often lacking from bands whose approach to doom is of the more straightforward variety. Predictable this may be, but when it’s brimming with an explosiveness this palpable, the life-affirming nature of the tracks trumps any part of you that wants to resist. After a string of mildly successful but largely underwhelming EPs, The Door To Doom sees Candlemass rediscover what made their music so thoroughly enjoyable in the first place, and lay down a reminder for just how damn effective straightforward doom can be when it’s done right.
The Door To Doom is out now on Napalm Records. Purchase here.
Words: George Parr
Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard – Yn Ol I Annwn
Sick of stoner doom? So were we until we heard Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard. Following on from last year’s stellar split with Slomatics, Wrexham’s premier spaceniks have once again hit solid gold with Yn Ol I Annwn’s masterfully balanced palette.
From the eerie, arpeggiated balladry of ‘Fata Morgana’ to the processed rumblings of intro ‘Tralfadamore’, the release is packed full of spacey goodness. Chuggy doom riffs float effortlessly amidst endless polished, vintage-themed synth pads and Jessica Ball’s haunting vocals. The sound here is symphonic without any hint of pomp or pretension – almost recalling the cosmic black metal of Mesarthim in its use of cosmic pads to monolithically static effect. However, to call this doom is a disservice, the intro track’s aforementioned techno musings are a precursor of what is to come, and, refreshingly, it’s not really about the riffs here – it’s about building an ethereal display of ambience. Post-metal, electronica and atmospheric black metal all come into play here, with simplistic but effective riffing enhanced by the serene audial pastures that surround it.
Most interestingly though, Yn Ol I Annwn’s embrace of what could be referred to as Gymraeg-Futurism (chwerthinllyd!!), sees the group balancing cosmically-minded doom with an embrace of the Celtic roots of their homeland – not only in name, but through the gentle atmospherics that emanate from its soul.
Yn Ol I Annwn is out now on New Heavy Sounds. Purchase here.
Words: Richard Lowe
Minors – Abject Bodies
There’s a reason Holy Roar are so highly regarded, but Minors‘ latest LP Abject Bodies provides a healthy reminder, fusing hardcore punk with a variety of grind, sludge and noise characteristics. Alongside a natural pacing throughout the record, this amalgamation of genres is incredibly satisfying. ‘Meanderist’ culminates with a barrage spat out with velocity, noise-ridden but seamlessly segueing into the chugging intro of ‘Flesh Prison’. Here Minors really have tackled the issues present on previous record Atrophy, transitioning into a realm of well balanced tones that utilise the aforementioned pacing for full impact – the second half of ‘Boneyard’ wouldn’t hit quite as hard without the tension that precedes it, and the repetitious nature of the track’s closing nods politely at Minors’ hardcore roots.
The noise elements reflect on a hardcore-punk scene taking notes from growing bands like Full Of Hell, but Minors are tasteful in their influences, instead using it to accompany their designated sound. It never comes across as derivative, and works every time it appears, with ‘Erode’ reflecting this ever creeping foundation of grit at its best.
Abject Bodies really came out of nowhere, but satisfies a number of itches within its 30 minute runtime – you will find yourself playing this through a couple times straight away.
Abject Bodies is out now on Holy Roar. Purchase here.
Words: Bill Waters
Primitive Man/Hell – Split
When two of the heaviest US bands at the extreme doom/sludge end of the musical spectrum combine forces on a split EP, the inevitable result is going to be one of absolutely crushing misanthropy. This latest split from Denver’s Primitive Man and Salem’s Hell is exactly that, unapologetically expressing their respective distastes for the obligation of existing in our rapidly failing world. With Hell’s side of the split having been recorded separately by multi-instrumentalist M.S.W at The Burial Grounds, due credit should be given to mastering engineer Dave Otero at Flatline Studios who brings out the individual nuances of each group whilst making both sit together in the overall mix with great skill – his extensive resume includes Khemmis, Cephalic Carnage & Cattle Decapitation whilst also having worked with Primitive Man on several previous albums including their recent split with Unearthly Trance.
Whilst both groups having ventured into the realms of noisy saturated feedback on their previous full-length releases (Caustic and the self-titled Hell) is a commonality between them, there’s a marked distinction between their approaches that is tangible upon listening. Hell’s side is doom-laden with NOLA-infused hypnotic repetition and variation, building up to lucid cathartic climaxes. Primitive Man’s sludge, meanwhile, is unrepentantly brutal, chaotically harsh and violently blunt. The former is more like slowly suffocating while on powerful dissociative drugs in a fugue state, and the latter is akin to being knee-capped in the path of a slowly oncoming bulldozer whilst bleeding out in agony. Standout tracks are ‘Nuumen’ and ‘Pitiful & Loathesome’, entirely different in execution and dynamics but evoking a common sense of antipathy between them. This split is for fans of bands like מזמור (Mizmor), Thou and Corrupted – you will not be disappointed if drawn out savagery is your vice.
Primitive Man/Hell Split is out now on Translation Lost Records. Purchase here.
Words: Josh Langford Coxon
Starless Domain – EOS
Describing their music as “deep field black metal”, Starless Domain offer up an album that takes black metal in a slightly different direction. A fascination with space is nothing new for black metal – just look at the enduring quality of Darkspace for prime evidence – but rather than the claustrophobic emptiness of most bands who look upwards for inspiration, EOS captures something of the wonder of the infinite void. It’s only fitting that an album based upon observations by the Hubble Telescope would have something quite wondrous about it – a sense of questioning just what could be out there.
But there’s a sense of emptiness and longing that never goes away, that roots EOS in black metal even more than the alternately shrieked and growled vocals, blastbeats, or tremolo-picked guitars do. It’s one of a growing number of albums that take atmospheric black metal out from the forests and mountains, and finds great success by doing so. This is hypnotic and terrifying in equal measure, yet with an undercurrent of something close to beauty that stops its oppressive atmosphere from being overwhelming. As such, that members of star-gazing ambient black metal band Stellar Descent are involved is no surprise. This is one of the strongest black metal debuts for some time.
EOS is out now. Purchase here.
Words: Stuart Wain
Dead Witches – The Final Exorcism
So captivating is the doom subgenre that something about the infectious grooves and sunken riffs leads many to end up devoting their lives to it. And this dedication is rampant across doom supergroup Dead Witches‘ second LP. Drummer Mark Greening helped solidify Electric Wizard’s standing as one of the scene leaders before hammering away with Ramesses and With The Dead; new guitarist Oliver Irongiant has forged riffs with the likes of Sea Bastard and Grave Lines; and new vocalist Soozi Chameleone is also a part of groovy psych doom outfit Satlan. Envisage the most likely result of this collaboration and you’ll probably already have a decent understanding of The Final Exorcism’s style.
Electric Wizard fans still lamenting over the band’s change in direction on 2017’s Wizard Bloody Wizard will find lots here to enjoy – Carl Geary’s fuzzy bass is straight out of the Leccy Wiz Guide to Doom. The sleazy tones and lumbering riffs are interrupted only by the odd touch of psychedelia, but there’s still something that sets the band apart from many of their peers. After all, there’s plenty of wannabe Electric Wizard bands out there, hiding subpar songwriting behind fuzzy tones, but Dead Witches’ concoctions are consistently as well-executed as you’d expect from such distinguished names. What’s more, this sophomore slab of doom does what many fail to do – capture what makes the genre so damn fun.
The Final Exorcism is out now on Heavy Psych Sounds Records. Purchase here.
Words: George Parr
Ungraven – Language Of Longing
Widely known in the UK doom scene for his work with Conan, Jon Davis delivers something entirely different this time around with his new solo project Ungraven. Imagine connecting early Scandinavian black metal to a framework of post-hardcore, then weld the gaps together with industrial metal elements in a frostbitten derelict warehouse, and you’re on the right track as to an idea of the gargantuan mutant weightiness of Language of Longing. Mixed and mastered at Skyhammer Studios by Conan bandmate Chris Fielding, now a distinguished producer with a CV boasting names like Electric Wizard, Bismuth, Drukh, Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard and Winterfylleth, Fielding has finely honed the brutal nature of Ungraven to a razor’s edge whilst making it still clearly listenable, which should be applauded.
The combination of three distinct styles works magnificently, the fuzz-drenched thick guitar tone of Davis is unmistakable but has a markedly icier edge than usual. This compliments the riffing, which varies from furious black metal passages to pulverising post-hardcore beatdowns. Also instantly recognisable to any Conan fan are his trademark jarring vocals. The programmed drums add an abrasive ‘90s industrial metal influence which perfectly compliments the ambience of unfiltered aggression. Disregarding conventional metal composition and songwriting cliches, this is a refreshingly original release. Fans of Godflesh, Darkthrone, Fudge Tunnel, Bathory, Ministry, Celtic Frost, Nailbomb and Khost should definitely take notice of Ungraven as it sounds much like a supergroup comprised of all those influences, except it’s a one-man project which is more than just impressive. Aesthetically, Language Of Longing is raw and unforgiving in its delivery of sonic pessimism – highlight tracks exemplifying this are ‘Aggro Master’ and ‘Targetted’.
Language of Longing is out now on Black Bow Records. Purchase here.
Words: Josh Langford Coxon
Vous Autres – Champ Du Sang
Ah the French, so often misunderstood….
Despite our Moron Media trying to turn us against our mainland neighbours as we slowly but surely try and fellate ourselves to death with our own sovereignty, we’d like to tell you about something other than DAT FROMAGE that these marvellous reactionary little glories produce. Spanning metal’s varied subgenres, France churns out some of the best far-spectrum heavy music out there and this little entrée from Vous Autres is no different.
Heralded as blackened sludge (a mixture that tends to makes this writer purr like Jabba the Hutt on heat), Champs Du Sang lulls you in with an ethereal ambient start to opening track ‘Sans Lendermin’. If you’ve got a hard-on for metal bands that use heavy audio processing, then by the time the first kick comes in you’ll already be well situated, and happy to settle into the rest of the album which follows suit with a continuous, all encompassing duality between crusty-as-hell vocal torture and mesmeric sections of placid malevolence.
The final section of ‘Tes Jours Pasèss’ reminds this writer of when he used to daydream about a gigantic horrific battle between all the various teenage subcultures – this was the soundtrack. He wasn’t a well-adjusted child…
C’est Magnifique.
Champ Du Sang is out now on Sludgelord Records. Purchase here.
Words: James Clarke
Pissgrave – Posthumous Humiliation
Let’s get this out of the way now – the album art for Pissgrave’s second album is extremely NSFW, and should probably be avoided (it does not appear on some streaming sites) if you don’t enjoy looking at gross-out images. As dark and macabre as we like to pretend metal is, none of it is truly depraved enough to warrant that cover. Nevertheless, it’s an image that throws any notion of taste out the window before you’ve even heard the music, and in this way it’s a fair representation of the album behind it, which by all accounts is raw and more feral than the band’s violent 2015 debut Suicide Euphoria.
The band’s music is death metal of the most intense variety, but it maintains its own sound by not quite fully succumbing to the brutal stylings of Cannibal Corpse et al. No, there’s something more heinous and immoral about Pissgrave – the guitars scrape like rusted knives on exposed nerves instead of bludgeoning like a blow to the head, and the album as a whole is as much about the atmosphere as it is the instrumentation itself. There’s an anxious aura created by the unrelenting tempos and muddy production, something that sets this apart from the shlock-ridden goregrind newcomers may arrive expecting to find. If nothing else, it’s sure to invoke a sadistic smile or too.
Posthumous Humiliation is out now on Profound Lore. Purchase here.
Words: George Parr
Encoffinate – Cimmerian Corpse Dungeon
There are some strands of extreme metal which pose profound questions, where the interplay between guitar, rhythm section, and vocals can conjure up something truly soul-searing – something that has the listener questioning their place in the world. And then there are those records which are so heavy with emotion, you can’t help but be moved by them. But along come Encoffinate with their Cimmerian Corpse Dungeon EP, all caveman-style blows to the head and primal bellows, and nothing feels more relevant or urgent. This is death metal as pure primitivism, with few concerns beyond the survival instinct, lusting only to satisfy its primal urges; and for the 22-minute duration of the tape, all other thoughts are cast aside.
The influence of Celtic Frost is heavily present throughout, with almost every riff possessing the kind of heaviness and groove that has its roots in Morbid Tales, but there’s more here than just worshipping at that particular altar. There’s more than a hint of bestiality here too, best evidenced on second track ‘Autointerment’; whilst ‘Black Skies of Terror’ takes a slightly slower approach, and closer ‘Beneath The Wheels Of Blades’ sees the EP out with that classic Celtic Frost groove – and some very convincing Tom Warrior-esque “hey-hey!” shouts. The band’s self-description as “caveman death metal” is completely accurate – Cimmerian Corpse Dungeon is primitive, crude, and a whole lot of fun.
Cimmerian Corpse Dungeon is out now on Caligari Records. Purchase here.
Words: Stuart Wain
Romasa – Cheering Death
Crawling out the hot, sticky and swampy climate of New Orleans, Romasa (Reality Obscures Manic Assessment Sickening Action) are unleashing their debut full-length Cheering Death after their 2017 demo and doing the rounds touring with Cave Of Swimmers, Yautja, Withered and Ringworm to name a few. With the members’ other bands being Torture Garden, Witch Burial and Ossacrux, the resulting auditory carnage is a savage and cleverly compromised amalgamation of crust, ‘90s hardcore, sludge, OSDM & post-metal influences. With hectic artwork courtesy of Ogi whose resume includes Crux and Chikara, this is an extremely strong first full-length for the band which accurately conveys a message of suffering in a world of excess and apathy.
Recorded and produced by James Whitten at Hightower Studios and mastered by Brad Boatwright at Audiosiege (whom between them have High On Fire, Thou, The Body, Tragedy, Nails, YOB and Obituary under their belts), this was destined to be a relentlessly heavy offering. Lurching between stomping swaying riffs, frantic blasting, chaotic D-beats, searing guitar leads and off-kilter tremolo-laden atmosphere with effortless ease and all the fury of an enraged orangutan dismembering illegal loggers with a hijacked chainsaw. If you like intense music such as Morbid Angel, Eyehategod and Gehenna, the sort that makes you feel as if you’re being torn asunder, you will love this. Though a well-rounded offering of sonic nihilism overall, notable tracks are ‘Pleasure Is My God’ and ‘Grateful For Filth’. With an upcoming tour planned for the end of March, keep your ears to the ground and get yourself to a show.
Cheering Death is out now. Purchase here.
Words: Josh Langford Coxon
Antre – Void
Taking techniques employed by the likes of Neurosis and Isis and applying them to icy black metal, Nottingham’s Antre take an approach to the genre that’s refreshing, without moving so far away from the tropes that diehards will turn their heads in disgust. Void is a worthy name for an album that feels so vast yet so capable of destruction – this isn’t post-metal-ridden stuff that looks upwards so much as spirals downwards through distortion and dissonance into a bottomless pit of dread and despair. Piercing through even the album’s most straightforward bouts of second wave-esque black metal is a subtle poignancy that is occasionally brought to the fore on the likes of ‘Denisovan’ and ‘The Frozen Deep’.
Elsewhere, the music delves ever deeper into the darkness as the album progresses, constantly finding creative new waves to swell and dissipate and seldom doing it in the same way twice. There’s hints of influences taken from other genres sprinkled here and there, but the black metal core is never abandoned for long – this is an album that finds new angles despite also happily wielding the genre’s well-worn tropes. Far more esoteric than most in its pursuit of overwhelming dread, Void is a thrillingly unpredictable bout of black metal that disavows the notion that there’s no new avenues left to take the genre.
Void is out now on Withered Hand Records. Purchase here.
Words: George Parr
