doom metal

Christ, this is awful. A lot of this “magick metal” stuff is known for being somewhat less than stellar (it’s part of the charm, oddly), but this record is bordering on fucking abysmal. Musically, it’s not so bad, pretty mediocre but the vocals on this record are incredibly bad. They really drag it down to the point where it’s almost unlistenable. A shame.

I enjoyed the group’s split release with Behrosth but on their debut full length they are almost completely falling over themselves. The various styles at play here in this concoction of “magick metal” (or whatever you want to call it) seem to sit apart from each other rather that come together to make a cohesive whole. That’s not to say that the record is bad; there are a few decent songs here, but generally the…

Production on this one is still very “lo-fi” but is much smoother and not so rough around the edges. Musicianship also seems to be moving in the right direction. A lot more going on here, especially when the keys/synths get going and all sorts of magic(k) happens. Generally though, if you’ve heard Edelweiss before you’ll know what to expect with this record, but things just seem tighter, which is always nice.

This is far from a bad album, but is Candlemass in name only. Leif (bass) is the only remaining member since the previous record, and this album was only put out under the Candlemass name because the label refused to continue with the Abstrakt Algebra project. As I said though, this is far from bad. It is actually pretty good “stoner” doom; the riff styles are drastically different to the rest of the band’s discography,…

I got this CD for pennies (it was one of the reissues with the white jewel case and it had the tracklist that included Anal Cunt – for some reason there appears to be multiple versions of this compilation with different tracks, even different covers by different bands! I guess a band like Cathedral has an emergency stash of various Sabbath covers to break out in times of need hahaha). Now, a band like Sleep,…

Perhaps not as endearing – or as well known – as the debut but this sophomore effort would initially be the last album from the fun “trad doom” group Witchfinder General. There are some fantastic songs here, such as opening number “Love On Smack” or later cuts like “Shadowed Images”, and the production is just gorgeous; those riffs ooze out of the speakers in ways that would make the whole Rise Above roster water at…

In a word: punishing. I suppose you could say that Cop is more focussed than Filth, and I also suppose that this kind of “focus” on sheer brutality would continue into the Young God EP and the more precise mixed-electronic works of Greed, Holy Money and the singles associated with those albums. Cop however, is like a bunch of New York’s most experimental and uncompromising musicians accidentally stumbled upon sludge / doom metal. The cuts…

Yes, I was one of those clowns that fell for this one. I thought indeed that it was a legit live recording, and it was only when I actually took the time to delve into “Type O Lore” that I realised I had been fooled. The wool had well and truly been pulled over my eyes. The trouble with Origin though, is that, well, it’s not very good. On the surface of it, as a…

One of the first records I ever owned, this triple LP set on Southern Lord (it was a really cool dark laquered brown colour) is awesome and I have a soft spot for it even to this day, even though I got rid of the record itself many years ago. Altar is a puzzling mix of crushing drones and odd soundscapes combined with gentler tracks, of which “Sinking Belle” is probably the best one, by…

Somewhat underwhelming entry from Electric Wizard, at least in regards to the great heights that this project can achieve. The Reverend Bizarre side however, is a masterpiece (or it is until it starts to drag on for far too long). Before we get to several minutes of pointless noise and effects over the top of the track, we have a fucking incredible cover of the Beherit classic, “The Gate Of Nanna”. I’m not sure how…

An interesting entry into the Candlemass discography. Chapter XI is noticeably different from the series of Messiah-led albums that preceded it. Yes, even outside of that evolving sound, Chapter XI is a huge leap forwards (or perhaps sideways) into a more “modern” sound, at least for the time. I’m reminded of some of the more straight forward efforts of Tony Martin’s Sabbath days, such as Cross Purposes. I’m not sure if this has held up…

Very raw recording, it’s bizarre hearing just the first three albums and knowing that the rest of the stuff doesn’t exist yet (Seventh Star wasn’t even a twinkle in Iommi’s dilated pupil yet hahaha). Ozzy seems in a very good mood on this one, but it’s far from essential.

Nothing of note to really report. Slow, plodding doom in various forms is the uhh, order of the day. Notable for being one of the first 10” records I ever but it never got many spins from me and I sold it years ago. Coming back to it now I can see why. Not bad, but pretty nondescript.

Interesting split, from two bands I never thought I would see together on one release. Fistula stuff seems culled together from various sessions, but what the fuck do I know. For downtuned, sludge-loving sleazeballs exclusively.

I’ve got nothing really special to say about this one. I don’t think funeral doom is for me.

Beautifully crafted, mournful yet crushingly heavy doom metal in that imitable UK style that seemed to proliferate in the early 90s. Comparisons to early Anathema and early My Dying Bride are perhaps a bit lazy on my part, but Gothic has a gorgeous lineup of monolithic songs that hold up well against the other greats of the time. Production is clear, heavy and crisp. Brilliant!

Death Penalty sounds like it came from a decade earlier than its actual release date. Witchfinder General bolt from the gate with “Invisible Hate”, which for my money is the best track on this gorgeous sounding analogue romp through doomy traditional metal. The ending one-two punch of “Burn A Sinner” and “RIP” leave a great impression, and the short run time only encourages me to spin this again. Brilliant feel good metal of olde!

More refined and streamlined than the Gluey Porch debut, and infinitely more punishing for it. Ozma is a dry heave in direct blunt force heaviness (with some mandatory Melvin’s groove, of course). That’s more like it!

Fun, but pretty directionless and seems to be lacking any real purpose or direction. A mere shadow of what was to come. Gluey Porch Treatments is notable however for being considerably ahead of its time for “sludge” metal.

I was very dubious of the Forbidden remix. Why, you ask? Well, remixes, generally, aren’t usually that great. If a band decides to do it, there’s usually a reason – and it’s easy to see why in Forbidden’s case. On top that, most if not all remixes that I’ve heard of controversial albums have failed to improve on the original. This, I’m happy to report, is where Forbidden differs. The changes here are night and…

Evil Eye sounds massive. A really promising remaster job which will no doubt have many returning to the long forgotten Sabbath album from whence it came. Get A Grip took me by surprise. Initially, I did not like how the 2024 remix by Iommi and Mike Exeter handled Cozy Powell’s drums, nor was I particularly fussed on the strange inclusion of different vocals for the second chorus (I don’t understand why only one chorus has…

Ugh, what a nasty mess! In what barely constitutes music in parts due to how sparse and desperate it is, this disturbing full length release by Khanate is highly recommended for those fans of the sick and twisted and / or the slow and tortured. The vocals are savage and raw, barely holding together the shambling backdrop of glacial sludge. Clean Hands Go Foul is worth checking out for the 32 minute closing track alone,…

Messiah is here for the final album in his original classic run, Tales Of Creation. It’s not the strongest of the earliest albums by the band, but still has a slew of decent tracks, my absolute favourite being “Into The Unfathomed Tower”. However, with the inclusion of a re-recorded song from Epicus… as well as a lot of these songs being worked from early demos, one can’t help but escape the feeling that Tales… is…

Interesting mix of stuff here. You’ve got Goatmoon originals which are great, followed by a Ride For Revenge set of originals, which are dark, murky, bass-led mires of noise. You then get a TON of Goatmoon rehearsal recordings, which, honestly, have absolutely fucking zero value for me (not saying there aren’t others who would interested in hearing these) and then the whole thing is capped off with this huge 20 minute noise piece from R4R…

Not to be confused with the 12” EP of the same name, this later reissued Dismal (with altered artwork) combines the original Dismal EP with the S/T Grief EP and the band’s tracks from the split with Utopia. If you’re not paying attention it can almost seem like this version of Dismal is one of the band’s full lengths, because they are so consistent across these three early sessions that it’s unreal. A great starting…

Oof! Heavy as shit sludge metal that’s gonna hit you right in the dick. Probably not quite as good as the Dismal 12” but we are really splitting hairs here. We’re talking minute differences in production and songwriting at the absolute most. Well worth your time, ears, and mental energy.

Really cool shit. Took me a few listens to really get into it because Fenriz’s vocals just sounded a bit odd to me. It felt as though they didn’t quite match the rest of the music, at least on first impressions, but the whole thing has grown on me massively. It’s cool to see some long running members of the Norwegian black metal scene come together to do something slightly different. I know Darkthrone have…

Super heavy, super slow, super sludgy, super depressing. There’s something about the 4 tracks on the original release of Dismal which is just so purely and utterly disgustingly beautiful. I think the production has a lot to do with it: the drums are crisp as fuck, the guitars hit like a ton of bricks. I’m not always the biggest listener of “sludge” metal but this shit is up there with the best of the genre.

When Cathedral announced they were throwing in the towel my friends and I rushed to London to witness their final show (having seen Cathedral live several times I can safely say the finale was the best) where this 12” was for sale. With Rise Above being, well, Rise Above, I assumed that this would be a crazy collectors item and a great momento of the last show. Well, turns out I was wrong on both…

One doesn’t want to ask such a question, but one feels one has to – would Castle Rat be popping off as much as they currently are if they didn’t look the way they do? I’m talking mostly regarding enigmatic and super-talented frontwoman Riley Pinkerton AKA The Rat Queen, but also the rest of the group with their various monikers and disguises. The Scooby Doo aesthetic, whilst clearly working, gives a whole Blood Ceremony meets…

It’s always a good day when Darkthrone release a new album. it’s something that can be consistently relied upon as something to look forward to, even if the result of each offering may vary slightly. Or in this case, perhaps not so much at all. It Beckons Us All is great, but it is very similar in production and approach to both Eternal Hails and Astral Fortress – whilst also reminding me of some of…

Excellent quality show. Even better than the perhaps more commended “When Death Called ‘89” from earlier in the same tour. Sure, there are a few audible artefacts on the recording, but it’s a small price to pay for what is an excellent line-up performing songs from all eras of Sabbath (Gillan and Hughes aside lol). As with other boots in this era, it’s a pleasure just to hear Cozy playing Ozzy and Dio era stuff….

The best thing about this particular live recording is hearing Cozy Powell play with the band in the arena space; for his three albums with the band his time on the road with them was often fairly limited for various reasons. Hearing his super awesome interpretations of the fills on tracks like “War Pigs” is a real treat. Quality is pretty good here, although there is like a flutter effect that’s appeared on the tape,…

As someone who found 13 to be rather tedious in both production and actual song content, it will be of no surprise that I find this little EP of left over tracks to be equally as uninspired and devoid of anything of worth. On top of that you have some of the most dogshit art the band have used in some time. It’s a no from me, Tony mate.

Wow, this get’s off to a shaky start! The drumming on “Black Sabbath” is so bad (not to mention Ozzy’s appalling singing) that I almost gave up before I started. I’m glad that I did stick with the whole record though, because I missed out on the Birmingham shows in person and felt like I had missed a momentous event in history. However, having consumed this entire live album several times, I don’t feel like…

Ancient Dreams feels like both a sequel to Nightfall and a spiritual successor to Epicus Doomicus. The trouble is, and I mean no disrespect as this is still a highly enjoyable record, is that Ancient Dreams is not quite as good as either of the two previously mentioned albums. Nevertheless, let the phenomenal cover art draw you into a world of powerful, epic doom metal like only Candlemass can so expertly craft. If you enjoyed…

Quite possibly one of – if not the – greatest live album that I have ever heard. The fact that I’ve been listening to Sabbath for over 20 years and have never stumbled upon this recording until this week is nothing short of embarrassing. I feel like I have unlocked some sort of secret. Anyway, the release itself is phenomenally good. The production, for a 1975 live recording, is absolutely fantastic. I’m not sure how…

I’d originally written off Past Lives for being the “official” version of Live At Last but with a bunch of extra shit added onto the end. In some rather dim world views that is perhaps correct, but Past Lives is so much more than that, as I have recently found out. Yes, disc 1 is the same as the Live At Last album so if you’ve heard that, there’s no point in bothering with the…

It’s very cool to see the Tony Martin era music start to get some of the attention it deserves. I’ve probably been a bit harsh on some of the material myself. But I gotta say the remaster of both the title track of Headless Cross as well as “Anno Mundi” from Tyr sounds absolutely great. This single has definitely raised my excitement for the rereleases of all of these albums. I’m not going to buy…

An interesting set of remixes, which is more than I expected. Perhaps unsurprisingly, drone is the buzzword of the day, and whilst like any remix album the quality varies track to track, the general overall level of quality is pretty high. Legacy Of Dissolution presents us with a shockingly pleasant set of reinterpreted textures – one that was quite uplifting, despite its heaviness, to listen to on a Sunday morning with a black coffee, watching…

Phase 3 has always been my least favourite of the early Earth releases. Moving away from the crushing drones of the earlier releases, Earth instead turned to shorter tracks of varying texture and feel. Whilst the band would refine this approach for the excellent Pentastar, Phase 3 is, frankly, a disjointed mess of ideas. Granted, a lot of these ideas are very pleasant and fun to listen to, but the album as a whole has…

Colour me surprised when I went back to this record to review it and found out it was now 7 years old this year (lmao). Like, we need a Wizard to fucking rewind time because that shit is fucking bizarre! This shit only came out last month, right? Right!? Anyway, Electric Wizard’s “latest” studio effort seemed to have been met with a resounding “meh” and whilst I initially wasn’t super into the pared back sound,…

Dopesick was the first Eyehategod album that I bought, although I didn’t really get into them until I heard Take As Needed For Pain. There was much more groove there – painstaking and agonizing groove but groove nonetheless – whereas Dopesick just seemed tortured to me; drawn out, unpleasant. I also found the production to be rather muddy, which is OK for drug-addled sludge, but the 2007 remaster rather refreshingly opens up Dopesick without losing…

I love the mix of crushing doom metal and more traditional instrumental passages, which use all manner of different sounds to build the atmosphere. Anyone who puts a church organ on a doom record is a genius in my book. The production is also fantastic and the length of this thing, seemingly impenetrable at first, opens up the album like some sort of sprawling journey or concept album. Granted, this type of death/doom at the…

Ah yes, THE Electric Wizard, everyone’s favourite dope smoking fuzz fiends. Not sure what inspired that brief name change, but I am glad they reverted back after this album. We Live! seems to be a transitional period for the band, with Jus moving the band away from their “classic” lineup and still – honestly – having not found their stride with the newer incarnation of the band. This would come in spades with Witchcult Today,…

It might be the squeaky Despise You on helium vocals that put folks off after the first few songs but The End is Gallhammer at their most glacial and experimental. Worth listening to for the closing tracks alone, “Wander” and “108=7/T-NA”, the latter of which has what sounds like some sort of Zorn-like sax improvisation over it.

The main selling point for Slabdragger, at least on this LP, is the phenomenal guitar tone. Crunchy, fuzzy, chewy, riffy goodness! Unfortunately, Regress fails to hold much attention for the entirety of its runtime and I attribute this to the lack of variety in its textural content; it’s all rather one dimensional, despite the songs being generally very good in isolation.

Side A is a blisteringly fast and chunky “HM2 hardcore & death metal smoothie” (that doesn’t actually sound like it utilises a HM2 pedal lol) but where An Unexpected Reality really shines is Side B, with the ten minute “Emptiness”, a doom-laden masterpiece that earns every second of its run-time.

It is unlikely that DIS will ever top Hatred For Mankind. That album was, as people like to say about these kinds of things, like lightning in a bottle. After the somewhat mixed reception of Widowmaker, DIS’ third “full length”, in this case a collaberation with the excellent Gnaw Their Tongues, is I think as close as we are ever going to get to that intense sonic explosion that was their debut. The production is…

Ah, Gallhammer. Bass, guitar noise, and loose drumming. Truly, a band after mine own heart. This shit doesn’t reinvent the wheel but it’s pretty damn obtuse and in your face. Ill Innocence is an interesting blend of styles and has a surprisingly sinister streak running through it. Very cool.

Solid but puzzling compilation of “early” Edelweiss stuff, including the White Flower Power / Yeast Of The Mind single, as well as the self titled LP and a few tracks off of the following record, Behind Our Masks. I say it’s “puzzling” because 4 tracks into the run of self-titled tracks, we get the two tracks from Behind Our Masks, before the record closes out with the finale from the self-titled, which makes the track…

Side A is a bit kooky, with delivery not quite living up to the imagery and clever name (check out the original tape art for “White Flower Power”), but the B-side “Yeast Of The Mind” is absolutely brilliant. It is a really cool occult rock song, and genuinely sounds like it is from another era. Comparisons to BMSS are perhaps too easy, but I’ll throw it in just incase the sleeve of this EP doesn’t…

Interesting vibes, deeply entrenched in the BMSS / Assassination school of “Nazi hippy” occult rock stuff. On this debut full-length, there are some very strong moments for sure, but it feels like things could fall apart at any moment. Any sense of timekeeping or togetherness as a band “unit” feels very fragile indeed, but oddly that’s almost part of the charm.

This thing fucking slaps more witch titties than a sleazy hooded dungeon master in a shlocky 70s sexploitation flick. I may be slightly biased, as outside of the mammoth “Funeralopolis” on Dopethrone, Witchcult Today was the album that sold me on Leccy Wiz. The album I feel, despite it’s “wind tunnel” production, has some of the best stoner / doom tracks ever recorded, such as “Satanic Rites Of Drugula” and the eerily-similar in opening riff…

Fam, these woods be straight bussin’, fr fr. Damn this shit crunchy as hell, though. It’s like the band has been to my local Chinese takeaway to sample the giant spring rolls. Then they took one of those things, no doubt all cold and soggy by the time they got it back to the studio and said, “we want this, but in guitar tone”. Like that terrible barber meme, recording engineer Billy Anderson said, “I…

Where it all began for the now infamous Black Magick SS. Black metal enthusiasts will no doubt feel right at home with the muddy, distant production, but fans of even the most dusty and occult psychedelic rock may be alienated somewhat by the intense layers of fog present on this thing. Despite this (I’m not complaining, just suggesting it may be a bit much for those outside of the lo-fi worlds lol), the magic (no…

Markedly different from pretty much every Electric Wizard release that would follow, the self-titled walks a different path to the fuzz-laden doped up dirge that the rest of the discography plods along to. Nevertheless, the band’s debut is still unmistakably Electric Wizard, with riffs heavier than all the matter in the universe and of course Jus’s immediately recognisable vocal style.  Don’t be fooled by the Dave Patchett cover art (as awesome as it is), this…

If I had to sum up King Of The Grey Islands in three words it would be chunky, doomy and consistent. Robert Lowe takes a little time to adjust to after the departure once more of Messiah (bye bye). King Of The Grey Islands is also one of those albums that I really enjoy yet doesn’t actually pop off the page for me with its cover art nor particularly thrill me when it’s coming out…

Interesting compositions, but none that actively capture my imagination. There is a lifelessness to proceedings, and due to the genre and deliberate style that may indeed be intentional, but Galgenfrist is a record where I’m counting the minutes going by and that is never a good thing.

I really love what Darkthrone have come back around to doing. This is some sort of very organic mix of black and doom metal, which works with a confident ease you could only attain no doubt after several decades in the game. It’s odd, because there’s not all that many people playing in this style, but it sounds like such an obvious blend of metal subgenres. Tracks like “Impeccable Caverns Of Satan” and “Stalagmite Necklace”…

Would it be wrong of me to say that a stoner / doom metal album is derivative? Surely the whole genre itself now has “derivative” as a trope? Either way, Till Marijannah quickly falls into a comfortable pattern where the dizzying distortion of the guitars leads the way, followed by intense melodic vocals. If I had to compare this to anything, I would say that Marijannah was like a less-miserable Kroh; a fun listen no…

The Last Spire is the chunky but somewhat underwhelming final output from legendary UK doom metal band, Cathedral. The fact that I have avoided listening to this album for over a decade speaks volumes about my apprehension for finally addressing the final nail in the coffin for one of my all time favourite groups. The Last Spire then, is, a relief in some regards, because it is not a bad album. It mixes together a…

Sub-Basement is nowhere near as crummy as its album title or album art would perhaps lead you to believe. Whist Bobby L’s vocal style is an acquired taste, the instrumental end of this thing is some top notch doomery. Heavy, dense riffs and oddly triggered / compressed drums make for an interesting combo (especially with the vocals). Only downer for me is that it sounds like it came from a certain time and place and…

The Devil You Know occupies an interesting space. It is – by far – the heaviest Sabbath album with Dio on vocals, with epic, doom-laden guitar playing (Geezer’s bass is off the charts here, fair play). Iommi’s relationship with Mike Exeter means of course he is at the helm here, and there can be no denying that the record sounds absolutely huge. However, my issue lies with the songwriting. When it hits, it hits, and…

I played the absolute fuck out of this record back when I was a greasy 20-something stoner with nothing else to do with my life. Whilst still longer than most band’s tunes, the shorter run times to the tracks, even with the reprising nature of themes here, definitely helps Om keep things more varied and interesting. “Bhimas Theme” is one of the group’s best songs from any era. RYM review writing fun fact: Today I…

Mood is definitely important when it comes to earlier Om recordings. The line between this being fantastic or infinitely boring is indeed a fine one, thankfully I’ve really been craving the long-form meditative qualities of work like Conference Of The Birds recently, so I’ve been returning to this album for the first time in a very long while. 15+ minute tracks built around repetitive bass structures is not going to be everyone’s cup of tea,…

Peak “woah dude” era Cathedral, where the funky, proggy, stoner elements were at their height. This was before they returned to their heavy roots with albums like Endtyme and VIIth Coming, so one does wonder what made the band change direction like this (only to turn back to the trippier side of life with albums like The Guessing Game). Andy Sneap produced this one, so whilst it isn’t the Woolven / Cathedral dream team, it…

The 7th Coming possesses a strange duality in that it is both underrated and also somewhat mediocre. It takes the heaviness that the band brought back on Endtyme and then mixed in some of the more “totally cosmic, bro” vibes that the band had on Supernatural Birth Machine etc. I will say that the production here is a bit better than Endtyme, with Kit Woolven back on engineering duties. Kit (RIP) and Cathedral are a…

Huggy Bear, oh yeeeeahhh! Cathedral were on a roll in the early to mid 90s, culmulating I’d say, with this absolute stonker of an album. Things slowly started to cool off after this, but goddamn, the band are on fire on this thing. First off, the production is huge. It takes away some of the chonk of The Ethereal Mirror and instead heaps on a bit of frosty clarity. Kit Woolven (RIP) and Doug Cook…

My friend put this album on my computer sometime in 2008. I just didn’t get it at the time. It seemed boring, pretentious, overly long. I tried a few times over the years to get into it, but I just couldn’t do it. It wasn’t for a lack of patience, I love artists such as Sunn O))), Merzbow, Swans etc. – further to this, returning randomly to the album in 2023, some 15 years later…

Let Us Prey perhaps lives in the shadow of Dopethrone and therefore doesn’t get the attention it may deserve. However, after giving it a go several times, it is a fairly inoffensive offering from Electric Wizard that fails to really ignite any fire for me. That is of course not to say that the album is bad – it is well recorded, executed and is very consistent across its entire runtime. There are however, for…

I love the spacey vibe of the artwork for this thing. Also, the sound is crystal clear. I can sit here for hours opining on how great Sabbath were in the early days, or about the logistics of this thing being released and whether it was official or a bootleg. But, all that matters is, that this is a decent window into how the guys sounded back then. Most folk will no doubt have heard…

Fantastic production, and a lovely heavy guitar tone. First impressions have me feeling that this is like a cross between Anathema and Neurosis, but unfortunately nowhere near as interesting as either of those bands. I can only echo sentiments that have already been declared by others: this doesn’t really go anywhere and is more of a task to sit through than a trip you can get lost in – which is a real shame because,…

Well then. Goblin Cock was recommended to me by Spotify, and I simply had to check it out immediately because of the audacity of the name. What I did not expect was metal in the doom / stoner style, unusual in the way that it sounds entirely typical yet also as if something is completely off and wrong. It’s as if aliens heard early Sabbath and maybe some Kyuss and then decided to make some…

Saw these guys live a few times back in the day but never considered myself a fan, so was very surprised to find this CD when rummaging through old CDs in the attic. I have absolutely no idea where it came from. It sounds just as I remember Gates Of Slumber to sound, and my 3 year old seems to enjoy it (lmao), but there’s just something about this I cannot enjoy. Some of the…

For how incredible its album cover is, Savage Empire Of Death does not disappoint. Imagine black metal stylings crossed with sleazy doomy rock (Satan’s Satyrs, Mephistopheles etc.) and you wouldn’t be far off here. In fact, just imagine Black Magick SS with a little less keyboard and a lot less swastikas, and you’re bang on the money. The production is pretty nasty, but that lends much more to the atmosphere and vibe than what it…

One look at that cover art and I had to check this out, even more so when I saw the associated artists for this project were Pussies and Hooded Menace, two bands I would have never put in the same sentence. Hail Conjurer have a ton of recordings but this is the first that I have come across and after a few listens now I’m still not entirely sure what to make of it. The…

Epicus Doomicus Metallicus is beyond legendary, especially for a band that has spanned many decades (and many vocalists), but has also stayed fairly true to their core doom metal roots. And that core element is exactly what is on display here in this debut, in its truest and rawest form. That last sentence sounds like maybe I am talking about a black metal band, but what I mean to say is, is that later iterations…

I firmly believe that Candlemass’ cover of “Don’t Fear The Reaper” is one of the greatest cover songs of all time. I may be biased as I first heard it performed live at Roadburn Festival with both Längqvist and Rob Lowe sharing vocal duties. “All Along The Watchtower” doesn’t quite have the same impact for me but I enjoy it all the same.

My first impressions of Dark Quarterer were that of a poor man’s Messiah-era Candlemass. But, I gave this record a chance and damn, did it grow on me. What an interesting display of sounds. The production is garbage, the vocals are just… weird and the overall vibe is of classic or occult rock but after few grams too many in the pot whilst making the mushroom tea. It’s like, aliens observing from space saw rock…

I’ve always viewed Thergothon as something as a test of patience. I don’t recall what it was that had me coming back to this album after all these years but it finally clicked for me. I’m not stranger to slow, strangled and horrible music, but there’s always been something different about Thergothon’s cosmic glacial affront. All in all, a solid album.

Altars is the Kroh comeback record, released a few years after the original self-titled. This time, the band have a new vocalist in tow, in the form of Oliwia, giving a more occult rock feel than the original vocalist , who brought a more Goatsnake / Kyuss level of vibe to proceedings. The production is great and Oliwia is a brilliant addition, but the stand out element here has to be Mick Kenny’s (sp) crunching…

Quite a beautiful album, and one that I have admittedly often neglected. I’m not really sure why, because I enjoy the shit out of Serenades, Pentacost III and the other doomier stuff by this ever-evolving band. As I said though, there a larger beauteous element to this one. It perhaps holds back a bit in true, impactful metallic force; the harrowing sonic battlefield of Serenades is perhaps now grown over with various flowers and fauna….

I’ve always loved the production on this record and that super chunky yet warm sound works when the band are playing rousing party-doom or even the slowest, bleakest musical creation that they can conjure up. Speaking of both of these styles, II: Crush The Insects is comprised of both of them. Be fooled not by opening trio of “Doom Over The World”, “The Devil Rides Out” and “Cromwell” (watch out for the bass chords in…

A pillar of the sludge world, both as a band in Eyehategod and as an album. This record is a pure classic. There is few things that can touch it for pure sleaze and alcohol / narcotic fuelled depression. Opening track “Blank” sets the pace and really, if you are only ever gonna listen to one Eyehategod song, make it this one. The remaining tracks are filled out with such ditties as “30$ Bag”, and…

I remember hearing this when it came out and struggling to really get my head around what they were trying to do. Personally, I’ve had a go at this several times over the year but have always failed to make it through to completion. Why am I still trying? Well, the concept of it is right up my street. Longform, intense songs covering a gamut of extreme metal genres, including other stuff like noise and…

I got given this tape by someone at Leeds Deathfest in either 2009 or 2010. I can’t remember who it was, which is really annoying – it may have been someone from Lazarus Blackstar. But anyway, it was one of the dudes who played in this band too. I never really played it all that much, always losing interest after a few songs. I decided this week to finally play through the whole thing and…

Serenades is another one of those records that I have heard probably hundreds of times. In my teens it quickly became one of my favourite doom metal records, and I remember going to watch Anathema in 2007 at a festival without having any idea they had changed into the whole indie / post-rock thing. What a shock I had haha Anyways, I love this. I’ve made the point on several other record blogs now, that…

Juicer are a sonic force to be reckoned with. Calling All Cars shows their all-encompassing sound in its infancy, from sweet, lullaby-esque vocal pieces to stomping grunge and or sludge bangers. The duo would get heavier, more experimental and more extreme as time went on, but their debut is a sunny slice of all the things that makes this project so brilliant.

This is the second and final album from The Blood Divine, the band featuring several members of Principle-era COF, as well as Darren White from Anathema. Mystica is a refreshing journey, actually. The first album is a solid and fine lesson in 90s British doom (arguably the best doom?), but Mystica goes off in several unpredictable directions. There are a lot of rock and blues parts, and the keyboard playing is absolutely excellent in this…

These guys are like the Audioslave of the mid 90s doom scene. When the Principle Of Evil Made Flesh lineup of Cradle Of Filth left en-mass, they teamed up with the ex-Anathema vocalist Darren White to produce what (I thought) was initially a very similar, sombre doom metal outfit. Joined by a new bass and drum section, the six piece wasted no time in dropping two albums a year apart. The first, Awaken, is an…

D.O.C. can fuckin blast! Production is thick and chunky and the drums are probably triggered (legit kudos if they aren’t because they sound clear as day). Aural carnage is of course the order of the day, with several tracks of frenetic, chaotic grindcore to liven up your day. On the contrary, Agathocles offer something slow and disgusting, which is an interesting angle for these kings of mincecore. Despite the drop in production quality compared to…

You’d think the market was already saturated when it comes to ancient Egyptian themed death metal? However this interestingly named project show us that there is room for more than one leviathan obsessed with said subject matter. Ruins Of Gubla is a dusty, down-tuned tape demo style approach to gloriously muddy death doom. The riffs are absolutely huge and are of course the centrepiece of this 4 track work. Imagine if Disembowelment and Nile had…

Hogslayer were big news at one point, at least in the Welsh underground scene. I remember catching their headline set at Red Sun Festival 2015 and being blown away at how many people were in the room. I’d never seen Cardiff’s Moon Club so full (RIP, to the upstairs part at least!). I’ve had this album on my review list since it’s release. I’ve never made it past the first couple of tracks. I’ve always…

I saw Jex Thoth once (fronting Sabbath Assembly), and whilst there is something a bit magical about that band, I prefer her “solo” work (even though this is a band all in of itself). This has a bit more stonery crunch and fuzz to the guitars, a bit more of a dirtier sound and a bit more go to it, where I found Sabbath Assembly to be quite pensive. Granted, there are larger themes at…

Has it really been 7 years since this came out? Haha! Damn, my priorities are all over the place. Granted, I got very tired very quickly with the whole occult rock revival thing, but thats no excuse to take 7 years to review something. The Oath are pretty good to be fair, with decent amounts of occult swagger tinting this fairly safe play on the rock and roll template. The extremely-levelled-off production also compromises to…

Is it death metal or is it doom metal? Who cares? Immediately from the speakers comes one of the sickest and dirgiest tones in metal history, with a phenomenal analogue production job to capture it. Sparse flurries of synthesizers punctuate the heavy, yet without becoming hammy or overpowering. Why have I never heard Amorphis before? Add in the absolute banger that is the cover art and you’ve got yourself an incredible all-rounder.

So come on! The Ethereal Mirror is a markedly different album from Cathedral’s debut, but this sophomore full length did kinda set the pace (or more like, the tone) for how the band would progress through the majority of the 90s. Eschewing deathly slow pace, and instead ramping up the groove, we have some all-time classics here, like “Ride” or “Enter World Of Worms”. Doom on, folks.

Whore is an earlier album by the super-hyped Mephistofeles. Whilst I think Whore is better than Satan Sex Ceremonies I’m still not particularly wild about this project. I love the aesthetic, and the guitar tone, and that’s about it for me. Anyways, I’ve done two albums, I’ve tired to get into them. I guess we’ll just leave it at that for now! LOL.

Goatsnake have always been slow and bluesey, but Flower Of Disease sees them going lower and heavier than before. The band have always had groove, but multiple times through this journey things slow to an absolute crawl, without getting boring or drawn out. Personally, I love Goatsnake’s doom metal meets desert rock approach, the weight of which can only be helped home by the colossal riffs of Sunn O)))’s Greg Anderson. I see Flower Of…