Electric Wizard – Page 6 – Wonderbox Metal

Lucifer’s Fall – Lucifer’s Fall (Review)

Lucifer’s Fall are from Australia and play Doom Metal. This is their début album.

For fans of Reverend Bizarre, Saint Vitus, Black Sabbath and Electric Wizard; this is Traditional Doom Metal with a small nod to modern Doom, just enough to give it a dark edge.

With an audible bass that makes a valuable contribution, it falls to the bass and drums to provide a firm foundation on which the lazy rhythm guitar is built whilst the lead guitar sets off in hopeful exploration.

The vocals are as you would expect for this style; loose, mournful and performed with enough character to warrant attention.

The songs are classically composed and written with a true love of the genre. All of the requisite parts of a Traditional Doom Metal band are in place, with Reverend Bizarre in particular seemingly deserving of special reverence.

If you are on the fence with this kind of style or have just had your fill then you probably won’t especially take to Lucifer’s Fall. If you still have more room for another band like this in your collection though, then give this a listen and see what you think.

Keeper/Sea Bastard – Split (Review)

Keeper are from the US and Sea Bastard are from the UK. Both bands play Doom and contribute a single track to this split.

Keeper are up first with 777, clocking in at almost 14 minutes.

777 is crushingly repetitive Sludge Doom with acerbic, toxic screams that tear through the meaty guitars like a serrated blade through flesh.

This is a song that glorifies the heavy riff, slows it down and then makes it even thicker than normal through some form of arcane jiggery-pokery. Yes, that’s the term.

Imagine Khanate if they had the structure of Electric Wizard. Agonizingly delectable.

Uncompromisingly bleak, Keeper show that they mean business and easily have what it takes to join the big leagues of filthy, hateful Doom.

The wonderfully named Sea Bastard are next with Astral Rebirth, which is almost 21 minutes long.

Astral Rebirth is another lumbering behemoth of a song. Long, slow and heavy; Sea Bastard have come to flatten everything.

Imagine Bongripper if they had deep growling/high screaming vocals and you’ll be in the general area.

This is another song that is relentlessly heavy and is crushingly repetitive; flowing tsunamis of heavy guitars seem to repeatedly peak and crash on the listener. The Doom is huge and we love it this way.

Not content with just playing slow, the pace does pick up but the feeling of being compressed down by an immense weight never leaves. Heaviness is in their DNA.

Both bands to an excellent job of their time on this split and if you’re looking for a good introduction to some top quality Doom then look no further.

Highly recommended.

Snailking – Storm (Review)

This is the new album from Swedish Doom band Snailking.

Having enjoyed Snailking’s previous work this album held much promise for me and upon listening to it I’m pleased to say they haven’t let me down.

If you’re unfamiliar with Snailking they play Doom Metal with an easy slowness and epic-length songs. Think Electric Wizard with a bit more of a Stoner edge added to the Sludgy Doom.

The band have a raw, earthy sound that has honest appeal to it and a good gritty tone to the guitars. It’s heavy and dirty with a carefree vibe.

The vocals are lazily melodic with a roughened melodic edge. They add deeper growls and other vocalisations when needed but these are not over-used. The singer is relatively low in the mix and his voice seems to fuse with the music at the cellular level.

Riffs the size of mountains regularly tumble out of the speakers and the band effortlessly ply their Sludge-tinged Doom with simple effectiveness. There is a drone-like hypnotic component to their sound that carries you along on a sea of distortion and the promise of Doom.

These are well crafted songs that may sound jammed out but nonetheless display good structure and songwriting skills.

Storm is 53 minutes of expertly played Doom Metal. Highly recommended.

Sorxe – Surrounded by Shadows (Review)

Sorxe are from the US and play Sludge/Doom.

Two bassists? Layered vocals? Textured soundscapes? Heavy as fuck Doom? Yes please!

Sorxe have a crushing sound that’s befitting of a band who have double the normal number of bass guitars. This is as monolithic and colossal as you might imagine. The music is expansive with Progressive Doom tendencies and has a warm and heavy sound. Surrounded by Shadows has strong ambitions and the talent to see them through.

Special note should be made of the vocals, as they are diverse and wide ranging in their style. The singer shouts and bellows his voice raw, uses powerful semi-cleans and even manages soft crooning. It’s extremely impressive.

The songs on this album combine the unbearably heavy with the richly evocative and highly emotive. The band seem adept at switching from crushing passages to sections of energetic feeling seamlessly. Each song is highly accomplished and the band have truly unleashed something special.

The instruments are all used creatively and the synth effects add a further layer to their already involved sound.

Surrounded by Shadows combines elements of bands like Neurosis, Ufomammut, Electric Wizard, Yob, Isis and Mastodon to create an album that spends as much time destroying the listener via harsh sounds as it does through emotional weight.

These songs are diverse and well-written. They resonate with feeling and are richly textured and layered. This album has the complete package and offers a holistic, cohesive listening experience.

A stunning début that I’ll be playing for a long time to come. Essential listening.

Witch Charmer – The Great Depression (Review)

This is the début album from UK Doom Metal band Witch Charmer.

This is retro-style Stoner Psychedelic Doom with female vocals and blues-tinged riffs. This type of music has become less of a niche-only style in the last few years and is definitely more saturated and popular these days. Having said that Witch Charmer are good enough to hold their own and hopefully make their mark on the scene.

The vocalist has a very strong voice and she dominates the tunes with her presence. Her vocals are complemented by additional backing vocals that enhance the songs with their inclusion as it gives a further aspect to the band. The multiple-backing-vocalists-plus-powerful-main-vocals approach is unusual/uncommon and works amazingly well.

The interplay between these male and female vocals is a great touch and is a point that differentiates them from a lot of other bands who play a similar style. Something else which also does this is the band’s slightly darker sound than the norm; think more Electric Wizard-esque than any of the numerous Stoner Rock bands out there.

The riffs are typically huge and captivating; 70’s blues rock riffs made heavy and dirty so that they sound more contemporary than most. The band play slow and heavy very well but can also hit and maintain a good groove.

Each song on this release is a hugely enjoyable exemplar of the style and definitely something you should check out if you have even a passing interest in this genre.

Give them a listen; absorb the grizzled and fuzzy music in the best way possible – loud.

Stoneburner – Life Drawing (Review)

Stoneburner are a Sludge/Doom band from the US and Life Drawing is their second album.

The band combine aggressive Sludge with minimal Doom in a pleasing and refreshing way, taking elements of the masters such as Eyehategod and Neurosis and combing them with an eclectic mix of bands like Electric Wizard, Warhorse and even a splash of Isis on occasion.

They have a punchy, buoyant sound for a group of this type, with the guitars seemingly larger than life and ready to pop out of the speakers at a moment’s notice. For all this vibrancy however theirs is a filthy sound, mired in dirt and caked in sin.

The vocals are low-in-the-mix rumbles that sound as if something lurking just underneath the surface is threatening to break through and wreak havoc, yet is restrained by the thick, syrupy music.

The songs are free form expressions of the darker side of life where not everything works out in the end. The album cover is quite evocative and one can imagine this album chronicling the life and times of the figure in the painting. Which is possibly why the album sounds so bleak, yet with moments of uplift; even in a drab life there are moments of colour. Of course the actual lyrics are probably about something completely different, but this is my impression and it seems to fit the mood of the album.

At over 66 minutes in length this is a long and rewarding journey through a damaged life that culminates in the final, epic track The Pheonix. A moment of hope as the final curtain falls? Maybe.

Music to captivate and absorb.

Bright Curse – Bright Curse

Bright Curse

Time for some doom!

This UK band is relatively unknown, but on the strength of this release hopefully that will change. This is blues-y doom with plenty of feeling. The singer has a very good voice that fits perfectly with the blues-y feel of the music on display here and is extremely enjoyable. I am listening to this in the car at the moment and it is one of those releases that even though you know is good; it just gets better the more you explore it.

The songwriting here is of a high standard, and something that you could be reasonably expected to hear from a band on their second or third album, and not just their first EP. This bodes very well for their next release and I look forward to it immensely!

Favourite track? Probably Unknown Mistress.

I hope there are good things in the future for this band, as they deserve the recognition and respect afforded similar (-ish) UK doom veterans such as the wonderful Electric Wizard.

A very enjoyable release that should reside happily in anyone’s collection. Good songs and good jams? Get it now!

Don’t take my word for it – have a listen…

https://www.facebook.com/BrightCurse