This is the second album from US death/doom band Spectral Voice.
Featuring members of Black Curse and Blood Incantation, Spectral Voice play the sort of humungous death doom that crushes mountains and destroys villages. Sparagmos boasts 46 minutes of material that’s as distressing as it is rewarding. Continue reading “Spectral Voice – Sparagmos (Review)”
This is the debut album from Belgian sludge/post-metal band Predatory Void.
Featuring current and ex-members of Amenra, Carnation, Living Gate, Cobra the Impaler, Oathbreaker, and Aborted, Seven Keys to the Discomfort of Being is a 43-minute multifaceted trip into extreme metal darkness. Continue reading “Predatory Void – Seven Keys to the Discomfort of Being (Review)”
This is the second album from Italian death/doom band Assumption.
Following on from 2014’s The Three Appearances and 2018’s Absconditus, Hadean Tides contains 56 minutes of new material from Assumption. Continue reading “Assumption – Hadean Tides (Review)”
This is the debut album from Atramentus, a doom metal band from Canada.
Stygian is a monster of dark funeral doom. Three tracks sprawl out over 45 minutes, promising nothing but glacial moods and barren hopelessness, and delivering. There are two colossal songs that bookend a shorter ambient piece. Continue reading “Atramentus – Stygian (Review)”
This is the seventh album from Esoteric, a funeral doom band from the UK.
After a gap of eight years, legendary doom act Esoteric have returned. The band’s strain of crushing, suffocating music has lead the way in funeral doom since their first album was unleashed in 1994. On A Pyrrhic Existence they return with a colossal double album spanning 98 minutes of huge, awe-inspiring monolithic doom songs. Continue reading “Esoteric – A Pyrrhic Existence (Review)”
This is Mesmur’s second album. They’re an international band and play atmospheric death/doom metal.
Featuring members of Dalla Nebbia, Mesmur play death/doom that offers the listener a little bit more than what they might usually expect to find for something with that appellation. Continue reading “Mesmur – S (Review)”
Owlcrusher are a blackened doom/sludge band from the UK and this is their debut album.
Here we have some truly ugly, colossally heavy music, the likes of which you don’t stumble upon too often. Which, for the listener’s sanity and well-being, is probably a good thing. Continue reading “Owlcrusher – Owlcrusher (Review)”
This is the debut album from Tchornobog, a black/death/doom metal one-man project from the US.
Although this is ostensibly a solo project, (from the man that brought us the mighty Aureole), it also features several session musicians and guests, (most notably from Esoteric and Svartidauði), which help to flesh out the release. Continue reading “Tchornobog – Tchornobog (Review)”
There’s a very special day approaching soon – May 6th 2017. Why is this date so important? Well, if you’re in the UK on that Saturday, it means you can get on down to the Black Cloud All Dayer in Manchester.
Sign up for the Facebook event and get your tickets here – it’s going to be a good one.
The lineup for the day is ridiculously strong. Below we’ll have a look at each of the bands playing in turn. With such a wealth of talent on the bill, it would be foolish to miss this. Continue reading “Black Cloud All Dayer – Preview”
This is the fourth album from Finnish Doom-laden Death Metallers Hooded Menace.
Hooded Menace are well-known for playing Death Metal that’s heavy on the Doom influence, and just heavy in general. On this latest release this is taken to its logical conclusion, and the four songs on Darkness Drips Forth really blur the line between Death and Doom Metal, so much so that this is equally for fans of Incantation as it is for Esoteric.
The shortest song here is just under 10 minutes in length, with all tracks being stretched out to their maximum capacity for crawling, sinister, evil Metal.
Dark melodies creep into the thick, crushing music so that the band really foster the ancient Death/Doom influences that sit at the core of music like this. It’s not as overpowering or centralised as some who play similar styles though, allowing the heaviness and pure dirt of a band like this to remain at the fore. Old-school Anathema/Paradise Lost/My Dying Bride fans will be proud.
The singer’s cavernous growls are slow and drawn out, keeping pace with the unhurried music and reminding everyone that ultimately this isn’t pretty music; this wants to drag you down into the murk and consume your soul.
When they’re not playing at a snail’s pace the band have a rhythmic quality to them that’s almost Rocking, albeit one that’s coated in filth and grim intent.
These songs are veritable slabs of monolithic Metal, seemingly passed down through the ages in sealed tomes of forbidden lore, only to be discovered and unleashed by Hooded Menace. Each one is an impressive foray into Doom/Death, only much more malignant and nasty than a lot of the style normally is.
Highly recommended for both Doom and Death Metal fans alike.
Wonderbox Metal 