Church of Misery – Born Under a Mad Sign (Review)

This is the sixth or seventh album, (depending on who you ask), from Japanese doom metal band Church of Misery.

Born Under a Mad Sign is a 55-minute Black Sabbath-influenced slab of humungous doom metal. It sounds pretty much exactly as you’d expect it to with this description, but it works well, and this is a very enjoyable album that should also find favour with fans of bands such as Electric Wizard, Sleep, Corrosion of Conformity, Orange Goblin, Trouble, etc.

These songs are crafted from riffs that are instantly familiar, yet without sounding tired or forced. The band’s passion for their material is strong, meaning that they may wear their influences on their sleeves, but it doesn’t matter due to the high quality songs that Church of Misery have created.

The grooves are infectious and swagger with a doomy confidence that’s perfectly warranted. The music’s massive riffs may be the primary focus here, but they don’t exist in isolation; the rest of the components are all important, and all well-realised.

Born Under a Mad Sign is a satisfying album of thick, heavy riffs and solid doom tunes. I don’t normally enjoy this sort of Sabbath-worship as much as I have done here, but Church of Misery are just very good at what they do. Play it as loud as possible and get crushed by the mammoth riffs!