doom metal

Trad metal with enough of a sleazy swagger that you would usually find in occult rock and so on. God’s Right Hand is a fairly short outing, but it’s incredibly well made and the production is also fantastic and crystal clear, but without losing much charm. I look forward to seeing what these guys come up with next. I believe the record store (read: crypt) Crypt Of The Wizard helped to put this out.

Bongripper are one of those special bands that can be heavily enjoyed whilst driving or playing games. The absence of vocals seems odd at first, even in such drawn out doomy compositions, but those mesmerising riffs are there to take you on journeys my friend, and on journeys you will go! Things are a bit shorter here than on say, Hippie Killer or Satan Worshipping Doom, but that’s not to say things are not just…

When you wanna hark back and lose yourself in “that” 90s British doom metal sound, there are only a handful of albums that really hit the spot. Turn Loose The Swans is one of them, a drab, harrowing affair of doom-laden misery. Heavy riffs, downtrodden drumming, miserable vocals, morose synthesizers or pianos, and THAT dense, dry production with the middle sucked out of it. Chunky, low end guitars and percussion with sharp treble accents. It’s…

Cold, echoic and dense death doom is the order of the day, with an intense gothic edge. Not gothic as in, say, My Dying Bride, but more so than your average doomy death metal act. Good stuff here from Spectral Voice, even if slightly outside of my usual enjoyment realm, as it were.

When it first came out, it took me a while to get used to the sound on Black Masses. The entire thing sounds like it was recorded in a wind tunnel. It wasn’t until I heard a vinyl press over at a friend’s house, that it made a little more sense to me. Granted, it still sounds a bit hollow, even on IEM earpieces, but there are some great songs here. Try to listen to…

Asphyx are a weighty band. I’ve always appreciated their deathy doom approach, but after seeing them live in The Netherlands in (I think) early 2016 I really began to apprecaite their records more. Despite being self-titled, Asphyx was the band’s third (at least when canonically released) record.

Would you like some extra fuzz with your riffs? Then look no further than Weedeater’s Jason The Dragon, which is so heavy, its actually come full circle and is actually a pleasure to listen to, rather than a disgusting, uncomfortable experience. Let Jason fly you away on a pillow of enormous riffs, drifting off to cosmic lands unknown. Only, when you finally land, you’re outside a dive bar that only serves whiskey. Yeah.

This was an absolute beauty of a listen, and surprisingly it didn’t drag, considering it contains both a 12 and 17 minute track. Funeral-paced death doom is the order of the day, with weepy guitars and devastating lows. Despite this, there is a lot of melody. Brilliant stuff. I’ll be giving these guys a further listen in the future.

It always pains me when it comes to doing negative reviews of a band that clearly has their shit together. If the band was downright awful then it wouldn’t be so bad. Unfortunately for Black Tomb, who are seemingly proficient musicians, they come across as a poor man’s Electric Wizard, and not as much else. I mean, this is doom metal folks, nothing is original here. But, there is nothing endearing, memorable or even interesting…

This is one of those things where I cannot remember for the life of me where I picked the recommendation up from. Musically, its not something that I would usually listen to, but I found myself falling in love with Black Magick SS’ occult rock swagger. Hey, maybe its just everything I ever wanted Ghost to be, except not shit, and with a black metal influence. Whichever way you cut it, this shit fucking rocks….

The guitar tones on this are just absolutely filthy. Overall the sound is massive yet a little dry, but the guitar fuzz is absolutely perfect, as are the strained yet often drenched in reverb vocals. For slow, stoned and treacly riffs, there really is no need to look any further.

There has been a lot of hype around this band as of late. Vinyl prices for Satan Sex Ceremonies (and I’m sure, other releases from them) are nothing short of extortionate. Perhaps then, I went into this album with too much of an expectation. The art too, conjurs up an unique sense of sleaze and evil, of which the sound does not match. Mephistofeles play laid back stoner rock in the vein of Electric Wizard…

Heavy, dense, dark electronics meet droning, rumbling guitars in this 26 minute oddysey. I’ve had this on my to-do list since about 2014, and I’ve listened to it a 100 times since. Finally then, it gets committed to the Lines In Wax site. How simple yet unsettling is that art? Especially when placed alongside the title of this record? Interesting stuff.

Become The Bitch is the delightfully titled third album from Dutch party goregrind legends, Rectal Smegma. Here, the Smegma have chunked out further since their first release. Gone mostly are the party vibes and tupa tupa grooves, instead a more punishing death metal sound is utilised, through a chunky production that is heavy yet crystal clear (that bass sound, aye aye aye!). What makes Rectal Smegma sound apart from other bands of this style though…

Listening back now after all these years, I can more or less hear the youth oozing out of the speakers. Coming on like an acid-drenched Sabbath, Holy Mountain contains none of the bong-addled fuzz of later recordings, instead focuses on more concise and groove-led tracks. A classic of the doom and stoner genres whichever way you cut the cake.

Winter are legendary in the world of slow and heavy music. I had the pleasure to catch them live at one of the early 2010’s era Roadburn festivals (I forget which), so it was nice to return to these guys after so many years of not listening to them. Into Darkness is a slow, dirgy romp through well crafted metal tunage. Sometimes you gotta go back to the classics for that decent hit of metallic…

There’s heavy, and then there’s Triptykon heavy. Its a certain vibe and tone that the band can hit that sometimes just absolutely blows you away. Eparistera Daimones has a pompous name, but its fitting somewhat to the Giger-inspired gothic darkness that the band purvey, taking latter-career Celtic Frost to new depths of audible darkness.

Widowmaker is – unfortunately – a disappointing followup to the all out carnage that was presented to us on Hatred For Mankind. Even today, it is hard to find such a densely evil recording. One could argue that the bar was set too high by the band’s debut, but there was a myriad of different ways their intense and meandering sound could have progressed. Sadly, a lot of Widowmaker is boring where instead it should…

October Rust is quite possibly the perfect album for autumn. Here, Steele et al hone their gothic rock chops and stray away – for the most part – from the doom metal and punk elements that coursed through their first few records. I read somewhere that Pete Steele wanted more “chicks” to be fans of the band, and that says it all with this album. The production is cold and dense, and the gorgeous keyboard…

Haunting, beautiful and heavy doom metal from this proto-Sunn group. The vocal performances from Runhild Gammelsæter are stunning, a foil to the boggy doom of the band themselves. There is a dense Norse kinda feel here (hey, maybe its just the runes on the cover, eh). The only real downside is that there are only two studio recordings here, the rest of the record is made up of live or rehearsal recordings. The drop in…

I’ve read a lot of hype about this Mirror Reaper record over the last few months, especially when looking for new metal music. Can’t say that I am familiar at all with the works of Bell Witch, so going in blind I was expecting something in the vein of Sleep’s Dopesmoker. Colour me surprised then, when I found that this album was a more ambient affair. Mirror Reaper swells and builds, from the smallest sound…

Khost are a dark, heavy, miserable band and Needles In The Ground is a fantastic record. Expect a few subtle flourishes from Mr. Broadrick. Unsure why he hasn’t just used his own name on this rather than the Godflesh tag? Maybe GC Green was in on this? Hey, maybe it just helps sell records.

Expanding on the epic doomery of the previous material, Nightfall enters new territories of pomp, cheese and theatre. To me, the addition of Messiah on vocals steers this almost into the realm of power metal, but is held into more trad or doom classifications by the songwriting and perhaps more importantly, the pacing.

Oh, she’s a depressing one! Dialling back a bit from the slightly more sparkly offering of October Rust (an album made to attract female fans), Pete’s doomy wrecking krew instead hit us with tales of death, depression and drug abuse. How cheery! Of course, that wicked Type O humour is there, but as a whole this is back in the Bloody Kisses realm of misery. Good stuff gents!

Christ! What the hell is this!? Doomy Sabbath? That’s what I’m talking about. In something of a U-turn from Cross Purposes (the heaviest Tony Martin album but still a shitter), Forbidden is a weighty record. It sounds like a mix between 90s Cathedral and Warning, but with a lacklustre vocal performance over the top of it all. As a whole, the album is a swing and a miss, but showed Sabbath on a correcting path,…

Did anyone ask for something heavy? Whether Conjurer are still the darlings of the British heavy music underworld is not really my concern, but there is no arguing that with records such as Mire under their belts whether or not they lack the chops in the long game. Mire shows a sound honed and perfected, and a band who are now masters of their craft.

I’ve been digging this album since I caught Witch at one of the two Roadburns I went to (can’t remember if it’s 2011 or the 2012 off the top of my head). I love their blend of stoner rock, it really works quite well. The guitars are crackling like fire over lazy, swaggering rock, and the vocals are energised and sultry.

I love the early Melvins records. They are dryer in production yet pull no punches with aggression. Its like grunge got a shot of adrenalin in the arm, only instead of making it really fast, it just made it really, really angry. Honestly, the grooves that these guys fall into is the best thing about the album. Songs are often hypnotic and repetitive, but have a similar effect to Swans and that kinda shit in…

All it takes is the opening chords of the first track to remind me how much I love this album. The guitar tone is so fuzzy and dirty its an absolute pleasure just to listen to that alone; its like a massage for your ears and your brain. With Born Too Late, Wino et al deliver a Sabbath-worshipping doom metal classic. Tales of drug addiction abound, cast out over a sludgy production and a pickled…

I’ve witnessed Cardiff’s Thorun in the live environment but have not until had the pleasure of hearing studio material. Expect seismic, glacial doom in the instrumental veins of Bongripper, but coupled with the power-tinged riffs of bands more grounded in the riff rather than out there in the ether; think more trad-doom enthusiasts such as Pentagram, or even Sabbath. Chorus Of Giants reminds me in parts of the band Slabdragger, and I don’t feel that…

Yob is all kinds of heavy. I’ve never been the biggest of fans, but there has been that understanding, that appreciation; the musical equivalent of giving someone “the nod” across the room. I see you Yob, I see that you’re heavy, meandering out there in the crushing cosmos of the unknown. I appreciate you. Atma is a perfect example of what Yob are all about. Atma by YOB

I firmly believe that Type O did something incredibly unique with their music, even if it touched on many of metal’s tropes in the process. Steele et al clearly didn’t take themselves too seriously, but the musical chops are there all the same. This record is surely timeless now, especially in the annals of doom or gothic rock, even if somewhat falling into the category of ‘parody’. The mammoth opening track is a work of…

Dec 2017: To somewhat paraphrase the legendary Devin Townsend, the sound on this album is as heavy as a really heavy thing. Like, really really heavy; a collapsing neutron star, or some such. Dopethrone is a monument in modern day doom metal; easily one of the albums that re-invigorated the scene and brought new life to the (at the time) fairly stagnant genre, all the while re-setting the benchmark for what heavy music can be. It is…

Uncle Acid sit in that mire between lazy indie rock and that stonery, Sabbath-worshipping area of proto-metal, which explains The Deadbeat’s recent support slot with the aforementioned Sabbath nicely. As much as I enjoy Mind Control I find nothing original or special here, which to be honest, probably sounds really harsh, but its nice sometimes to just enjoy a record without losing my head over the intricacies of such; this is rock and roll, and…

Hammy, hammy metal for everyone! I was drawn in by the cover, and stayed for the Candlemass worshipping silliness and epic / silly vocal pompery. The riffs are solid, and the production is quite lovely, but this is a one off for me, I think. In the Shadow of the Inverted Cross by Sorcerer

Is there really anything as skunky and soaked in acid and visually drenched in the sleazy exploitation movie vibes as early Electric Wizard? Couple that with the weight of some of the world’s noisiest and heaviest music, and you have some absolute must haves for the fans of extreme music out there. Everyone knows Dopethrone, and rightly so, but Supercoven is a whole other beast. Instead focussing, in its original form at least, on two…

This is, traditionally, in the days before I decided to go through the entire discography, where my Sabbath listening would end. There would be many insults thrown at this album during drinking sessions “back in the day” (and a few defences bandied about too). The main sticking point would be about how high Ozzy is singing on some of the tracks here. Don’t get me wrong, he can get shrill at the best of times,…

On Jesu’s debut we are faced with 8 monumental tracks of shoegazy goodness. Granted, this self-titled record is not as astral as records that would quickly follow, but Jesu instead relies on the intense weight and pressure of the riffs, coupled with the dark, drab and dare I say somewhat depressing nature of the songs themselves. On Jesu it seems that all hope is gone, and the morose synths gilding the tracks accentuates this feel….

What is this that stands before me? What indeed. Imagine hearing this, in the early days of 1970 – I’d love to have a time machine to see how things really went down. I suppose us modern-day hipsters will just have to contend for crackly old vinyl copies of this and be done with it. Whether you think Sabbath invented heavy metal or not, they absolutely took that downering, bluesy sound to the mainstream. I…

I did have some big brain review of this written up where I explained that The Sciences was like a theme park version of Sleep’s music, how they’ve become almost derivative of their own work and that The Sciences, whilst on the surface is a well written, performed and produced record, it could have been made by anyone, and lacks any unique charm or statement. Unfortunately however, for the first time in Lines In Wax…

This early Jesu release is a daunting one to approach, knowing how crushingly heavy the songs are and of course how long there are. Couple that with the fact that the whole thing is quite depressing and you’ve got a brief description of the Jesu self titled in a nutshell. Only, once you finally crack open this beast, you can lose yourself inside a  shuddering, monstrously heavy beast. Morose synths soar, Justin groans and the…

I’m unsure if anyone has ever used Times New Roman on a record sleeve and gotten away with it like Cathedral have here. Honestly, it seems like the guys were stoned as fuck when they signed off on that artwork, and the same goes for the EP itself. This is a gloriously mad little thing, which reeks of early Cathedral vibes, but hints at the psychedelic madness that would come on later records. “Cosmic Funeral”…

Forest Of Equilibrium is often written about as Cathedral’s slow and miserable gestation into the world of doom, but, I find that in more than just scratching the surface of this dusty tome of fantastical worlds and weeping riffs, it is very distinctly Cathedral, from Gaz’s riffs to Lee’s unique vocals. Yeah, this isn’t spaced out on 10,000 strong mushroom tea (lol, a bit OTT there), but this is nowhere near as depressing as people…

Shrinebuilder was the only studio record by the band of the same name, which was a super group consisting of Dale from the Melvins, Al from Om and Sleep, Wino from Saint Vitus, and Scott from Neurosis. It is a fairly polished affair, which is a solid listen, with most of the guys sharing vocal duties. Some of the tracks are quite monolithic, but standing up to all the other projects that these guys have…

Often regarded as a classic of the doom metal genre, on Trouble / Psalm 9 the band take a more traditional rock and or roll approach, encompassing heavy – how should I say – Sabbathisms and elements of drowsy blues to their rocking sound. It’s not as heavy as Vitus or the aforementioned Sabbath, but it’s still a staple in the beginnings of doom.

I’ve probably heard this CD a hundred times, but for the purpose of (finally) committing it to this site I gave it another run through, and boy does it sound absolutely magical. Perhaps I’ve grown up a bit, but I can feel so much more going on here. These sweeping, all-encompassing drones simply have to be heard to be believed. 

There really is nothing better for angsty super sludge than a dose of classic Neurosis. Times Of Grace is a clunky, unforgiving beast, but within the chaos is a smooth core of juicy riffs and distraught vocal performances. A classic, no doubt.

I don’t know if God is Good (maybe if God is truly yourself?) but Om’s magical, hypnotising music truly is… good? Fuck that, it is outstanding. For all the experimental or religious music out there, there really is nothing else like Om in this world, and God is Good is as good (lol) a place as any to start with their discography.

In The Depths Of R’lyeh is an oddly melodic trip through the desperate mire of glacial-paced death doom. Channelling the morbid energy of such greats as Coffins, Evoken, Disma (sue me) or Disembowelment, Catacombs flatten you into a distortion-filled malaise of depressive, gloomy metal.  The sheer weight of the guitars is almost so crushing it is just delicious. It might be slower than your gran popping to the shop for a tin of cat food,…

Throned In Blood is one of the Jucifer records that is true to how the band sound in real life, up close and deafening in a live environment. The songs are messy, violent and devoid of any fucking around. Once you adjust to the recording quality, it is a real trip through heaviness. For me, the stand out tracks are the ones recorded on bass, and the closing track.

Glorious, regal, underground British doom metal. Think My Dying Bride, earlier Anathema or even 40 Watt Sun. “Rivers” is one of the greatest songs ever recorded.

Two of the most veritable noise powerhouses of the current decade collide on a mystical and cataclysmic collaboration album. Passages of droning sludge meet ear-frazzling noisescapes, thundering vocals and pounding drums. The proceedings almost have a spiritual feel to them, although the brutal heaviness helps keep the experience rooted at ground level, exploding in your face. Strong stuff. 

Well, where on earth has this been all of my life? I absolutely snoozed on this one. Later-era Celtic Frost doesn’t have the greatest reputation, but this is phenomenally heavy. I guess, creating the proto-roots for the Triptykon project in the process. The lyrics are a bit corn-ball, but the delivery is exceptional, the production is dry and on point, and the songs have the weight of a thousand anvils drenched in the blood of…

There is just something so very special about the music of Patrick Walker. Whilst less metallic in its heaviness than his previous work with Warning, 40 Watt Sun’s debut album possesses its own kind of dense, head-melting fuzz. The way it wraps around the bare bones songs, weaving its way into all of the gaps between the glacial riffs and sparse drumming, is absolutely sublime. On top of all this, the vocals and songwriting are…

Every so often I just gotta come back to early Anathema. Most often, it used to be to Serenades, but as time has gone on, I find myself revisiting this compilation rather than the debut album. Despite the engine of pure brilliance that modern Anathema has become, I do genuinely miss the old doomy Anathema. Honestly, this comp always gets looked over by me, but lets be frank here: as awesome as Serenades is, the…

Alternative 4 marked the biggest departure for Anathema from their original doom metal sound. Sure, the melody had continued to creep in on both The Silent Enigma and Eternity, but Alternative 4 jumped ship from metal completely, laying the blueprint for the alternative (lol) rock sound that the band would continue to expand on throughout the rest of the nineties. The production is a little flat, but there are some Anathema classics here. Also, what…

(Disclaimer: my version isn’t signed, I just bumped these pictures off Discogs. Sue me.) Before Kroh got a female vocalist and walked down the path that they are on now, they sounded like this. I got a whole extra-morose Goatsnake kinda vibe off of this, but always found it jarring how the super heavy Entombed-core guitars jarred with the melodic vocals and almost poppy song structures. Maybe it is just the production, IDK. I love…

Infinity is a task of a record, if I’m being real here. Just sitting down and honestly, thoroughly listening to a track of this scope is a bit difficult for me, which is weird considering how much I love harsh noise. There is just something about the pace of Jesu’s music, which is heartbreaking as it is at the same time enormously uplifting, that results in me only being able to ingest it whilst in…

Imagine High On Fire crossed with Mastadon and you should get a good idea of what is going on here. Throaty vocals propell these dreamy, heavy-stoned musical explorations of sound through the infinite cosmos of experimental wonder. It is progressive, but with the underpinning vibe and, I guess, performance lulling in the school of doom metal, providing busy, Sabbath-after-twelve-Dabbeths (lol) drumming and rumbling, chunky bass guitar underpinning the soaring guitar and vocals.

Everything about this album is looooooonnnnng, including the amount of time it has been on my review “to do list” (about 7 years – my bad!). I first became aware of the Samsara Blues Experiment after a trip to Roadburn Festival in 2011, and I fell in love with their excellently balanced heavy / psych approach to prog. The songs are meandering, jam-like, but held together by an underpinning heavyness with stops the record from…

Mid-career Cathedral output is often looked at with a certain degree of scorn, which is understandable in some respects but then, mainly not so understandable in others. Playing Supernatural Birth Machine, which bursts forth from the womb into heavy metal life (I went there) with the highly entertaining and excellently heavy “Urkos Conquest” and firmly establishes itself as a cheesy doom masterpiece within a matter of minutes. Do you need any more ride bell in…

Falling Early, Falling Often is a lesson in pure, unfiltered USA sludge mania. Channeling that Eyehategod school of combining time-warped Sabbath groove with downtuned desperation, Noothgrush’s dirty sound shines like a revealing black light through the dry, crisp and restrained production job which dominates most of the tracks on this collection. (Why is a lot of doom produced this way, is it to cram all of that riff in when recorded at what I can…

Satan’s Satyrs play dirty, dingy rock and roll tinged with that punk attitude that everyone loves so much (amirite?). The guitar tone here is off the chart, transporting you right to the heart of Fuzz City USA. We lose a bit of clarity in the overall production sound, which is a bit muddy, and the drums have this strange treble-heavy density to them (which is rather intruding at first but you get used to it),…

Kilslug are a sludgy band from the USA fronted by the mysterious Larry Lifeless, who initially comes across as a mix between Eyehategod’s Mike Williams, Scott Walker and err, Crank Sturgeon or something like that. Kilslug have been around for yeeears, and the Limited Appeal (what a label!) pressing of Sin, Tricks and Lies is so awesome it makes me want to start collecting vinyl again. I mean, just mosy on over to Discogs and…

Kong Saves is the debut EP from new South Wales based doom metal / stoner outfit Kong Lives, featuring members of Tradish and the recently (sadly) defunct Desalvo. Kong Saves treads firmly on the ethereal yet groove-laden side of doom, rarely falling full force into the pits of sludgy despair. The trippier, more laid back parts remind me of Germany’s Samsara Blues Experiment, whilst the more full-on, distorted passages are akin to The Inside Room-era…

It is quite a bizarre feat to see the sprawling works of Om confined to the time restraints of a 7″ record. Nevertheless, the duo manage to pull it off without it having any negative impact on proceedings. I seem to keep forgetting (I know, right?) that Om are one of my favourite bands, and this obscure 7″ does not disappoint in any way shape or form. However, if you are new to Om, I…

Fantastic heavy stoner rock from Italy. Think Samsara Blues Experiment but heading off in a more straight-forward, Kyuss-themed direction, rather than becoming lost in endless songs. The psych here is well controlled and reigned in, but do not fret – there is plenty of “woah!”, “man!,” and “duuuude!” moments here to keep perpetuating the frrrreakah enough to space these bluesy numbers out into the stoner territory. Hey, there’s even a Peter Frampton-style wah part towards…

Ahh, Burning Witch – what a terrifying band. Crippled Lucifer was one of those albums I got when I was younger simply because I thought the cover art was fucking mint. It therefore coincidentally opened up the drab underbelly of doom metal for me; not only was it slow, the absence of groove and most melody made it a painful first listen. I had no idea that doom could be so twisted, evil and harrowing….

Black Sun are (or possibly were) a three piece from Scotland. I think (from lending CDs off the Doomfinder General) that they pretty much started out as a one man industrial/noise project before evolving into a full band. They self-released a bunch of stuff before this final full length dropped on Future Noise and Head Of Crom. Twilight Of The Gods is a solid album through and through. The best way I can quickly describe…

(words by Le Manifico Doomfindaaaah Jenerales) Before anything else, can you just take a second to appreciate how amazing that artwork and album title is…. The Body are a two piece sludge band from somewhere in America. Well I say sludge, but they don’t sound anything like Eyehategod et al, but they are slow, heavy and unpleasant, so it’s close enough. The album opens up pleasantly (if not miserably) enough with “Wanderings” which has just a…

This is a short, limited edition EP that Jesu released towards the arse end of 2012 on some ridiculously limited quantity (I can’t remember what number it was exactly but it sold out and I missed out on a copy, but to be honest, I probably wasn’t paying enough attention and let it slide). It contains an unreleased Jesu track in the form of “Veiled” and a beautiful cover of The Stranglers’ “Duchess”, redesigned in…

(Words by Gumpy, Doomfinder General) Agoraphobic Nosebleed return faster than ever, this time managing to squeeze 27 songs into only 3 minutes…. Wait a second, there’s only 3 songs and one of them is 12 minutes long? It’s a sludge album? What the hell is going on? Shit talking aside there is a very good reason for this drastic change in direction; instead of just making another album, Agoraphobic Nosebleed decided to make 4 because……

I was asked to review this recently; jumping at the chance to do so (frankly, I’m just so happy to finally hear studio material by Conjurer). I can be quite wary of being asked to review things, or of bands that “farm out” reviews, because usually, if you have to ask for something to be written about, then it’s going to be shite, but this is something incredibly special. Conjurer have been gigging maniacally for…

As far as doom metal goes, Cathedral have always been one of my favourites. They were the band that introduced me to the genre in my youth, and therefore have always occupied a soft-spot in my blackened heart. Heading up to London Forum to catch the band’s final show was something that will stick with me forever. The disbanded warriors of gloom have a varied and interesting back catalogue ranging from the downright heavy to…

Bloodlung were a sludge band from South Wales who called it a day a year or so ago. As a result, free copies of their Roach album filtered out and I got given one at band practice when Judas Cradle used to rehearse at One Louder studios in Newport. I don’t usually listen to metal stuff in the car on the way home because a.) I’m usually sick of hearing guitars by that point and…

It’s a word that gets thrown around a lot these days but fuck, Cult Of Occult are heavy. From the crushing guitar to the viscous vocals and the pounding drums it’s almost too much at times but it never stops being amazing albeit in a thoroughly unpleasant way. Five Degrees Of Insanity (as can you see from the album cover) is about a man slowly losing his mind – which is a pretty good description…

So today (“today” being a month or so before you all see this post) I was casually browsing through The Graveyard (what I call iTunes on my PC since Spotify came along) and I stumbled across this forgotten relic; it had completely slipped my mind that Sleep had done a $neaky little EP for Adult Swim, and top it off, I find out this shit came out in 2014! 2014!!?? Holy fuck… Anyways, on with…

Acoustic Wizard is, perhaps unsurprisingly, an acoustic tribute band to Electric Wizard. I could never in a million years have expected this to work, but fuck, it totally does. If anything this project proves that there is real weight to the riffs that Electric Wizard have pioneered, rather than them being yet another crap band playing really slowly and smothered in distortion. I guess this is one of those things where I really can’t say…

Without getting too cringe there is something magical about Om’s music. Perhaps it’s the chanting, trance-like rhythm of the majority of their songs, or perhaps it’s the seemingly perfect balance that Al Cisneros strikes between riff and distortion. Either way, Om can turn a 20 minute song into what feels like one of those daydreams that has lasted only seconds but in your head you have traversed entire worlds. “Shit, how long have I been…

Electric Wizard are… well you should all know who Electric Wizard are. In a just world every person alive should know who Electric Wizard are. If not, go and listen to the song at the bottom of the post, I’ll wait… Come My Fanatics is Electric Wizard’s (Electric Wizard Electric Wizard Electric Wizard Electric Wizard) second album but it’s the one where they really find their sound. More heaviness, more fuzz, more drugs, more horror…

Fuuuuck me this shit is so heavy, I just had to get my oar in just incase the Doomfinder General shits out a review for this before me! I don’t write about that much doom metal these days so I’ll take this fairly rare opportunity to plug a new supergroup of slow. With The Dead features the original Electric Wizard backbone dynamic duo (later to perform as Ramesses) joined with ex-Cathedral/Napalm Death crooner and Rise…

Windhand are a doom band from the USA that play the kind of heavy fuzzy as fuck doom with washed out vocals that everyone loves. Whilst some people will read that as Windhand being some sort of second rate Electric Wizard, the reality couldn’t be further from the truth. Opener “Orchard” sums up the overall feel of the album with massive fuzzy riff following massive fuzzy riff while vocalist Dorthia Cottrell’s haunting voice helps lull…

I’m getting the most incredible Om-meets-Earth vibe off these guys. If that fact alone doesn’t make you want to check ’em out, then let me tell you a little bit more about Queen Elephantine. Interestingly, the band are from Hong Kong but are now located in New York City and Scarab is their 4th record. Crawling around behind the abstract sleeve art is a minimalist yet lush soundscape consisting mainly of vast instrumentation – be…

(Words by Richard Lewis, our new in-house Doomfinder General) Lazarus Blackstar are a sludge band from England, formed in 2004 out of the ashes of the not-so-slow Khang. Now, being from the UK, you don’t get the feeling that at any point the music is going to fall to shit and band members are going to die like you get from American sludge bands but Lazarus Blackstar even that out with consistent misery and slowness,…

Another long-awaiting comeback that paid off by the truckload! Eyehategod have been brewing their self-titled return for nearly 14 years, so it was understandable that fans were getting a bit itchy. But, like I said, the wait paid off. This album is absolutely fucking incredible. You’ve got the classic Eyehategod vibes as if they never went away, but they’ve given them a cleaner, modern spin. You could argue that the mud and sludge surrounding Eyehategod’s…

I have been beyond in love with Jucifer (or maybe it’s just frontwoman Amber Valentine ;D) ever since I saw them playing in Temples Fest last year. They have always been one of those bands that I wanted to check out but I never got around to doing so. I was expecting some half-arsed female-fronted stoner rock bullshit that’s all the rage these days, but Jucifer tore me a new arsehole and blew away most…

I’ve really been jamming the guts out of this album for the last few weeks. Fistula mix sludgy, messy doom a la Eyehategod with elements of crust and hardcore punk. I personally think that any genre of metal can be vastly improved by adding musical elements of (or just the spirit of) crust punk (Darkthrone’s The Cult Is Alive being a prime example; a vicious bastard of an album that followed a long string of…

Fukpig bring their haunted crusty d-beat mind-melt to this 10″ with Kroh; a confusing clean vocals ‘n’ super heavy doom combo act. I believe both bands share the same guitarist, but I could be wrong. The guitar tone is really similar by both bands though, even if musically they are completely different. Fukpig bring us three tracks of blackened punk madness, my favourite of which must be “The Prisoner”, although opening track “Docile Subjects” brings…

I love it when weird, totally out of the blue splits happen with two bands that are in absolutely no way related musically. This phenomenally weird split 12” between American sicko porno grinder XXX Maniak and Japanese death-doom titans Coffins is no exception to that rule. I guess the only  link between these two bands that I can decipher is that XXX Maniak love their slow, death doom shit; their label released a fancy box…

I’m not sure exactly when it happened, but Dragged Into Sunlight have become one of my favourite British bands of all time. From misty beginnings catching them unknown on the smallest stage of Leeds Deathfest in 2009, to seeing them release two records and headlining tours, packing out huge rooms at festivals. I think it must be the air of mystery, darkness and intrigue surrounding the band and their music. I’m a sucker for shit…

There’s a lot of Jesu stuff out there now – I think this project ended up being much more productive than even Justin Broadrick could have anticipated when he first started lurching out the aching melancholic drones of Jesu. Silver however, simply has to be some of the best material recorded under this moniker. It fights for the top spot against Lifeline, which was the first Jesu release I heard and therefore I have an…

Weedeater’s Sixteen Tons is a beer and whiskey soaked southern-tinged romp in sludgey doom metal. The guitar tone is literally the audible equivalent of a Louisiana swamp; a thick bog of rumbling riffs and plodding rhythms. I first got into Weedeater when I saw them at Hellfest nearly five years ago (bloody heck) and they were so heavy that I fell asleep. Granted, it was probably the monumental amount of people within the tent who…

What part of this release constitutes as ‘rock’ I’m not entirely sure, but Bong have got the ‘stoner’ part of the title 100% correct. Well, with a name like Bong would more would you expect? Such a simple yet fathomless name can only lend itself to a simple (in theory) yet fathomless (in practice) sound. Bong is music for those who aren’t afraid to sit tight and experience the long haul; the great build up,…

This is the first time I’ve actually successfully sat through an entire Nadja album. They definitely made delivering kebabs and pizza an ethereal experience, I can say that much. Numbness is like many other releases in the sizeable Nadja catalogue; ridiculously fuzzy, enormously slow, miserable yet hopeful and just a little bit pretentious. Numbness offers (to me) nothing new; it is simply Nadja for Nadja’s sake. Depending on how much you like Nadja, you may…

Fuck! What happened here? Earth are definitely not messing about on their new record – the heaviest thing the band have done in over a decade. I can get behind this! Since their reformation / regrouping, Earth have been all about calm, serene, bright and wavering tones; colossal monuments of clean guitar work and uplifting instrumental soundscapes – almost like the shoegazing equivalent of their early drone days. But this is something else entirely. Someone…

Blood Ceremony’s self-titled is one of my go-to feel good “doom metal” records (I use the term doom like that because I find that this isn’t miserable enough to fall under the doom tag proper, although it does incorporate a lot of elements from that genre). As mentioned elsewhere on this website recently, my distain for the explosion in female-fronted edgy rock music continues to grow, but let’s fuck all that trend-jocking shit for a…

When I first went to Roadburn festival in 2011 I was in waaaay over my head with my bands-I-know to bands-I’ve-never-heard-of ratio. I’m not saying I didn’t have a wicked time (I went again the year after) but I spent a lot of time high, watching shit I’d never even heard of. Black Pyramid was one of those bands, whom I espied briefly through the packed doors of the second stage in Tilburg’s 013 venue….

Now here’s something I have listened the absolute fucking death out of during the last few months. I’ve always been a casual Type O Negative fan but I’ve always put off buying their albums, because I’m lazy as fuck like that. Anyways, I stumbled upon a free copy of this when I worked clearing out unwanted crap from charity shops, and for the next couple of hours in the van I became baptised in the…

The Killing Jar is quite possible one of the crappiest names for an album I’ve ever come across, but let’s not let that tarnish things here. Black Moth are a dirty rock and/or roll band with stoner and doom metal influences. They’ve been around for a few years now but I hadn’t heard of them until they were announced for Temples Festival this year. I was too smashed to watch them (story of my life)…

You probably don’t need me to tell you that the new Pallbearer record is heavy as fuck, but FYI – it’s heavy as fuck. Doom metal is a grossly saturated scene these days, making stand-out records is becoming something of a challenge. I’ve personally given up on loads of underground doom because I literally just can’t be fucked to sift through all the shit, which is a tragedy. When I took the chance with streaming…