This is the eighth album from French doom metallers Monolithe.
Monolithe can do no wrong in my humble opinion. Across many releases, (here, here, here, here, here, and here, for example), the band have consistently delivered the sort of quality, engrossing doom metal that just keeps drawing you back no matter how much time you give it. Okta Khora is no different in this regard. Continue reading
Vofa are a doom metal band from Iceland, and this is their debut album.
Vofa contains just three tracks, but each is over 12 minutes in length, making for an album with a total duration of 37 minutes. Continue reading
Oak are a Portuguese funeral death/doom band and this is their debut album.
Featuring members of the mighty Gaerea, this album contains 51 minutes of slow, mournful doom. Heavy and atmospheric, Lone is a doom album tour de force. Continue reading
What an unreasonably strong month for metal releases November was! Be assured, this list could have been much, much bigger. Let’s see what made the cut… Continue reading
This is the third album from international doom band Mesmur.
Mesmur’s 2016 album S was a heavily atmospheric slab of funeral death/doom, one which was notable for its depth of mood and delivery. The band have now returned with four new imposing songs, clocking in at 55 minutes. Continue reading
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
Slow is a funeral doom band from Belgium and this is their sixth album.
2017’s V – Oceans was a monolithic slab of atmospheric funeral doom that I really, really enjoyed. Brought to us by the artist behind bands such as We All Die (Laughing), COAG, Merda Mundi, Cult of Erinyes, and many others, Slow has now been expanded to a duo, which seems to have inspired them to produce an absolute monster of an album – here they give us 78 minutes of content to become transfixed by. Continue reading
Midnight Odyssey is an Australian one-man black metal band and this is his third album.
As ridiculous as it sounds, I almost didn’t want to review or even listen to this album. Why? Because the band’s last album – 2015’s immense Shards of Silver Fade – was so hideously good that I couldn’t imagine being anything but disappointed with Biolume Part 1 – In Tartarean Chains. After all, Shards of Silver Fade claimed the coveted top spot in my end of year list for 2015, so this new one had a lot to live up to.
Anyway, enough preamble. Time to judge Biolume Part 1 – In Tartarean Chains on its own merits, of which there are many. Apparently this is the first in a trilogy of albums. I can’t wait to hear the next one already. Continue reading
This is the debut album from Ornamentos del Miedo, a one man funeral doom band from Spain.
Here we have 62 minutes of atmospheric funeral doom. It’s slow, heavy, and played with an obvious love for the style. Continue reading
This is the debut album from Heathe, a blackened doom/drone project from Denmark.
Apparently created by a core of one person who was then aided and abetted by multiple others, this band have crafted here a single 38-minute track named On the Tombstones. It has apparently been recorded live, with a structure enhanced by improvisation in places, which is probably why the music feels so vibrant, albeit in a bleak, nihilistic ways. Continue reading
