“I like doom, it’s a genre replete with crushing riffs, evocative themes (doom spelled backward is “mood,” after all) and one of the best examples to turn to when you need something spine-crushingly heavy. What it doesn’t do is respect your time.” Time waits for no band.
“Those who know me will tell you that Steel Druhm is a man of refined tastes. As such, I don’t always listen to cult underground doom, but when I do, I like it the same way I like my chili – extra meaty and full of crippling regret. Obscure Chilean doom purveyors, Condenados have their own homestyle recipe they’d love to share and on their second album, The Tree of Death they’re looking to serve it to a wider audience.” Ent no thing.
![Kroh – Altars [Things You Might Have Missed 2016]](https://www.angrymetalguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Kroh-Altars-album-cover-ghostcultmag-800x800-768x768.jpg)
“With acts like King Goat, Darkher and Khemmis snatching Album of the Month, I’d say this has been a good year for doom metal. Good thing, then, that this is also the year I found out how great this genre is, having mostly ignored it under the false assumption that all of it was paced like a 9-hour funeral.” Newbie re-education is an everyday struggle at AMG.
“It should be fairly apparent by now that I loves me some doom. As of late, I’ve been on an almost exclusively doom-rich diet: death-doom, blackened doom, even “esoteric doom.” I’m beginning to think it might be high time to cut down; after all, a moment on the lips, a lifetime on the hips. But, as always, I’m suckered in by that one last bite… This particular tender morsel comes to me in the form of Americans Cardinal Wyrm and their third release Cast Away Souls, and as it happens, it’s deceptively filling.” Commence the doom shaming.
“When I saw the promo descriptor for Northern Crown’s debut, The Others listing it as “epic doom,” I took a flyer and grabbed it. You never know when you’ll stumble across the next While Heaven Wept or Atlantean Kodex, and I’d want to plunder all the glorious metal cred such a discovery would impart, while lording it over staff members in the AMG break room. So is this the doom juggernaut you’ve been waiting for? I can’t formulate the beginnings of a sensible answer to that question.” Steel be flummoxed.
“Worry not my child for the balm to salve your festering wounds exists in the form of a split from Demonomancy and Witchcraft. Bestial, coarse and outright evil, this 26-minute payload of blackened death offers a brief respite for those needing an outlet for their rancor.” Now available at AMG – Rancor relief.
Blaze Bayley’s solo records have become a perpetual state of promise and terror. Turns out Infinite Entanglement is more promise than terror, if you’re keeping track at home.
“King Goat hails from the mid-sized English city Brighton, the embodied karmic inverse of the Great Storm of 1703. Conduit, the band’s debut album, is a self-released album that they call “progressive doom metal.” The record consists of 5 long songs, is 42 minutes long and marks the band’s first release since two EPs from 2013. Most readers here are aware that I am not an epic consumer of doom metal, but Conduit spoke to me immediately. This band of Britons have crafted an album which successfully blends dark atmosphere, soaring vocals, ponderous builds, and an epic feel that compels a listener forward.” Candlemass-core no more!
Candlemass’ 1986 debut Epicus Doomicus Metallicus had a big impact on my young metal mind and made me a lifetime convert to Leif Edling’s concept of what doom metal should sound like. Decades later, he surprised me again with his Avatarium debut and how it leveraged the prodigious vocal gifts of Jennie-Ann Smith to create a refreshing take on the classic doom template. While I expected The Girl With the Raven Mask to be a quality follow-up, I wasn’t prepared for this!” Get prepared post-haste!
“When nearly half of your band includes key Svarttjern black metal misanthropes, a marriage of Pagan Altar and King Diamond’s heavy metal Mercyful Fate-alism is not what you expect to burst forth from your speakers. And yet it does.” In the Olde School you still need chalk and fountain pens.
