Briton Rites is a heavy doom metal act hailing from Atlanta Georgia and their debut album For Mircalla came out of nowhere and really blew me away. Released by Echoes of Crom Records and features Phil Swanson of Hour of 13 on vocals and one of the heaviest, most distorted guitar sounds out there courtesy of Howie Bentley of Cauldron Born. Together these gents serve up some truly ginormous Cathedral, Pentagram, Witchfinder General worship of the highest caliber but with a style all their own. With a thematic concept largely dealing with cult vampire movies like “Captain Cronos” or “Crypt of the Vampire,” there’s enough doomy and gloomy atmosphere here to scare the most rabid werewolf and enough raw, heavy ugliness to convince a metalcore band to go back to playing pop-punk.
Check out the massively monstrous “Karnstein Castle” (one of the best doom songs I ever heard) as in lumbers and shambles along for thirteen doom drenched and glorious minutes or the oddly catchy yet heavy-as-fuck “Camilla” and you may agree that this is one of the best pure doom albums in years and it’s a major crime that it didn’t get more fanfare and praise. If Atlantean Kodex was too “soft” for you, this is the doom metal album you were looking for this year but probably didn’t hear about. Be forewarned though, if you leave this album laying around, your grandad may use it to break up his gallstones. DOOM!
Highlight:”Camilla,” “The Right hand of Doom” and “Karnstein Castle”
