New album

Candlemass - The Door to Doom

In the pantheon of doom bands, there is a strict hierarchy which places Black Sabbath at the summit, and not many people will debate their standing as the rightful owners of the throne. Second place as the heir to that throne can be debated, with a number of bands having a claim, but the majority of people are probably going to land on the legendary Swedish band Candlemass as the Tommen Barthareon to Sabbaths Joffrey (not that I’m suggesting Sabbath in anyway relate to Joffrey, it’s just an anecdote I enjoyed writing).

Candlemass has been a consistently brilliant band since their 1986 iconic debut album ‘Epicus Doomicus Metallicus’, not only one of the great doom metal albums, one of the great albums, of any genre, ever released. A monumental slab of incendiary brilliance, one which was the first, and last album for vocalist Johan Längqvist. And here we are, 11 albums and 33 years later and after all this time, those compelling vocal cords are back fronting Candlemass. 

Over the years they have released some timeless classics, wonderful albums with some iconic voices involved, but that first album, that voice, that sound was always the Candlemass which I, and many others, loved the most. This is making this album the most exciting Candlemass album to be released in a long time. To say that there is a lot expected from this album is an understatement, and that’s before you even think about the fact they enlisted Tony Iommi to play on one of the songs, queue unabashed Sabbath worship. 

The album starts off with ‘Splendor Demon Majesty’ with it’s wonderful opening riffs, Johan’s vocals immediately sounding like he’s never been away, a composite part of this band which you suddenly can’t imagine not being there. Lots of the other vocalist have done great jobs, I’m a huge fan of Robert Lowe and everything his brilliant vocal range brought to Candlemass, but this is just another band altogether with Johan back. It’s a perfect start to the album and hard to know what to praise, the vocals, lyrics, riffs. It’s just what you want to hear and pristine doom.

Second track ‘Under the Ocean’ starts off with Johan showing his range over a gentle intro which explodes into a MASSIVE riff, this is a song I really want to hear live, the song revolves around this riff until it reaches its glorious guitar solo, breaking down to bluesy bass lines and vocals before exploding into the main riff again. Brilliant. Into ‘Astorolus - The Great Octopus’, the track featuring the godfather of metal Iommi playing the lead guitar, you can almost hear people bowing in the studio as he plays. There is some rest-bite for everyone’s neck with ‘Bridge of the Blind’, a melodic track which seems to feature as almost an interlude between planet destroying riffs. 

After this we get ‘Deaths Wheel’, a slightly faster paced track, feels almost like a thrash tune compared to most of the slow and destructing pummelling of the rest of the album, ‘Black Trinity’ slows everything back down to the slowest possibly pace, singing “The weight will hit you soon, the ambassadors of doom” is quite possibly the ultimate way to describe this album, the weight is incredible throughout. And then we hit ‘House of Doom’. Starting out with church bells ringing out almost identical to ‘Black Sabbath’ by the same band, this is both a worship at their alter, and creation of their own, it’s the stand out song on this album, as the bells ring out we crash into an opening riff almost like ‘Children of the Grave’, every band borrows ideas from their influences, Candlemass are just borrowing from the best. The chorus is catchy, the riff is the best on the album, the solo blazing with contempt for the universe, Johan sings “welcome to the house of doom”, and it’s the most unsettling and intriguing welcome you will ever receive. This is going to be a staple of the live set moving forward. The song ends with the bells ringing again. This probably should have been the end to the album, but we get a another track in ‘The Omega Circle’, a 7 minute call to arms for Candlemass, it’s melodic, and incredible heavy, it’s a wonderful track but probably should have come before ‘House of Doom’, but this is probably the most minor complain I can possibly come up with for this album.

And then it’s over, it’s an incredible ride, a stupefying smack to the skull from a legendary band, an utterly brilliant album which is everything you could want from Candlemass, from doom, and from metal. This album gives you the feeling that the world is ending, or Candlemass are going to start the ending for it. Utterly essential for all metal heads. 

KC

9/10

Top Track - ‘House of Doom’

Album Review

Rotting Christ - The Heretics

So I've spent a large portion of my Sunday trying to remember who it was who first introduced me to Rotting Christ. It was around 2007 as I was given a copy of 'Theogonia' to check out as they were raving about it, and I was immediately sucked into the Rotting Christ universe. Not only did I run out and buy 'Theogonia', but also a pile of other albums to go with it. 'A Dead Poem', 'Sleep of the Angels', and 'Khronos' were all invested in, and classics the lot of them turned out to be. Rotting Christ were the anti-Christianity black metal band with Gothic overtones I then set about telling everyone they should be listening to. I sure owed a beer to the person (who ever it was) who borrowed me that first CD.

Now in recent history there has been some differing views on the output of the band. 2016's 'Rituals' in particular grinding many peoples gears with its much more melodic approach to black metal, focusing on creating an atmosphere to host the still anti-Christianity themes and more subtle in its approach. I understood peoples disdain to the style, and disagreed with it. 'The Heretics' is Rotting Christ's 13th album since the debut 26 years ago, I would have long since ditched listening to the new albums if they were putting out exactly the same time and time again. They have evolved their sound over the years, they have lost fans doing this, but will have gained new ones who like the more melodic approach. Yes the style is different, but the music is still consistently good.

Well I have good news for the people who didn't enjoy 'Rituals', you don't have to spend 43 minutes of your life this week listening to this album, because you wont enjoy it as its the same approach as 'Rituals'. I also have good news for the people who did like that album, 'The Heretics' is even better than it. It takes the same approach but the overall narrative is delivered in a much more rounded package. The album starts off with operatic vocals and spoken words on 'In the Name of God' before building a fist in the air cacophony of fury and rabid intent around melody, atmosphere and chugging riffs, this is the call to arms of the entire album, a bunch of tracks which take the same component parts of the operatic vocals (Most notably 'Vetry Zlye'), riffs (standout 'Heaven & Hell & Fire') and atmosphere ('I Believe') with each song still retaining its own identity, the highlight of the album possibly being the hellacious 'Fire God and Fear' featuring the best solo on the album and a magnificent build up of gothic tension throughout, its a perfect example of how and why Rotting Christ have evolved their sound to what we have.

A couple of notes on the album, 'Hallowed Be Thy Name' is not an Iron Maiden cover rather an atmospheric gem with shades of My Dying Bride and a slow storm of vocals, and 'The Raven' is a cover of the legendary Edgar Allen Poe poem, closing the album with the famous lyrics of the late Baltimore based wordsmith which fit the overall climate of the album perfectly, its an inspired choice to use with its dark undertones and carries a massive amount of weight. 

I have no doubt that the detractors will have a field day with this album as its not a return to old style Rotting Christ, but reviewing the piece holistically on its own merits as a melodic, Gothic black metal album, I think its fantastic. Few bands still sound so irreverent and furious at what they did 13 albums ago as Rotting Christ do, they have an axe to grind with Christianity, and they're not going to stop any time soon 

KC

9/10

Top Tracks - 'Fire God and Fear', 'Heaven & Hell & Fire'

Album Review

Seer - Vol. 6

When I spotted this when browsing this weeks new releases I wondered how the hell I have missed a band now on their 6th release, that’s probably a decade or so of writing and releasing music which I’ve never listened too, shame on me! However, as it turns out, I’ve not simply had my head in the sand to doom from the seems-quite-nice streets of Vancouver, they’re just a specifically prolific group and this is the 5th release in 4 years, all quite helpfully numbered in sequence for the anal retentive ones of us (Vol. III & IV comprise one full length).

Seer bring all the riffs to the party, as you would expect a doom band to, but what makes them stand out is the frankly fantastic vocals throughout the album. Bronson Lee Norton puts in a fine performance using a revolving door of vocal styles, he huffs, gruffs and quite possibly could blow your house down. The true highlights are not in the rabies infected bulldog deep growls which punctuate each slab of bastard lava metal they throw at you, but in the clean singing. As you would expect any doom band, there is a healthy slice of Black Sabbath, but there is a verity of other influences baked into this pie, and when the clean singing comes in, it is drenched, soaked and utterly dripping in a warm reverb, sounding more like early 80s  Mercyful Fate production using a tube-driven analogue reverb rather than a modern digital one. This really adds a layer of intrigue to Seer's sounds over a straight up doom band, and turns each track into a mini epic of its own.

'Vol. 6' starts off with a short intro track before the first full song in 'Iron Worth Striking', an almost 9 minute behemoth of a song, opening with plenty of the aforementioned reverb moistened vocals over a rolling thunderous cacophony of riffs and drums, the song ebbs and flows until it reaches its maniacal solos at the end, a superb start to the album. 'Seven Stars, Seven Stones' pulls you in with a massive hook of a riff, probably the stand out on the album, its doom, its sludge, it had echos of early Cult of Luna in the riffs, it all folds around the wonderful vocals.

We move into the second half of the album with 'Frost Tupla', opening with delicate Spanish guitar work, its hear where you really start to hear the wide influences on this album, it could be Sleep one second, it could be the beginning of the apocalypse the next, but its great either way. 'As the Light Fades' is the 4th and final full length track on the album, another excellent song, massive vocal hook and big riffs again, its a perfect mash of heavy vocals and singing, pianos, strings and plenty of other things holding it together right up to the climatic ending.

The only gripe I have with the album is it feels slightly shorter than you would ideally want, but there is the back catalogue I already mentioned to be researched, and the speed these guys write there will probable be something new along in a minute.

Seer's strength is that they have managed to take a doom/sludge sound, make it sound familiar with influences shining through but it always sounds new, it always sounds fresh, its always interesting, and unmistakably its always their own sound. Its always Seer.

KC

8/10

Top Tracks - 'Seven Stars, Seven Stones', 'As the Light Fades'