OK so, I guess let’s get the confusing stuff out of the way first, yeah? Vorder is the current iteration of a Swedish Doom/Sludge/Progressive band many of you might have known as V, but with a bit of a new lineup consisting of former Katatonia, In Mourning and Disrupted drummer and current Grand Cadaver drummer Daniel Liljeqvist on, uh, […]

For a couple years now, I’ve been praising the French for their rise to prominence in the Traditional Heavy Metal scene. It’s still not necessarily a numbers game, but the quality in the limited product is undeniable. Obviously, much of this is owed the genre’s continued growth in popularity, but bands like Herzel and Tentation […]

If I had a 2020 “do over” for my top albums of the year, I can confidently say Witnesses’ Doom II would be on it. Not only on it, but easily in the top five. Not number 1, as I picked Unleash The Archers’ Abyss and will stand firmly by it as it’s a god […]

Welp, that didn’t take long. Maybe things really are looking up? I know everyone had a shit 2020 – I won’t bore you with the personal details of my god-forsaken year – but while lots of folks have been ready to kick 2020 off a cliff and welcome the new year with open arms, I […]

Everyone’s got a list of favorite bands – but when’s the last time you added one to your list? Just happened for me with King Buffalo’s new EP, Dead Star. I’ve been listening to the Rochester, NY space-rock trio for a few years now, after stumbling across their debut album Orion in 2016. Among all […]

The transatlantic collaborative beast known as Culted is back with album number two for Relapse. Their 2009 debut Below the Thunders of the Upper Deep was a heavy, fuzzed out dagger of blackened doom and sophomore effort Oblique to All Paths continues the established formula of shambling guitar and thick layers of distorted vocals. A […]

Church of Misery are an institution. When it comes to big, bluesy doom riffs they are untouchable, and if you’re into metal and have yet to hear the band’s serial killer-inspired doom boogie then I suggest you head over to Youtube, punch in “Killifornia” and give a good listen. I’ll wait… All set? Now if […]

It would be easy to assume that a band who takes their name from an Electric Wizard song would fit in nicely with the bleary eyed stoner doom bands roaming metal’s landscape nowadays. It’s an easy assumption, but a wrong one. Despite the implication of their moniker, Las Vegas’ Demon Lung stands out as a […]

Norway’s Devil made an impression on me in 2010 with their demo Magister Mundi Xum and rightly so. Injecting some rough hewn overtones of NWOBHM favorites Witchfinder General in to a bluesy old school doom sound was a perfect antidote to the hordes of image conscious hippies and their retro rock bullshit. Their debut album […]

Do band names get any more generic than Hell? Metal Archives lists 8 other bands with the name Hell, which unfortunately doesn’t include the spoof black metal band I started with a friend of mine in 9th grade. This project from Oregon popped up on my radar via last year’s stellar split with Thou, Resurrection […]

Portland’s Orca Wolf Records has only been around for two years now, but in that time they’ve released a small catalog of fine music from Oregon’s doom scene and the self titled debut by Usnea is no exception. Similar to label mates Amarok, Usnea ply a style of doom dirge familiar to fans of Samothrace, […]

Expectations can be a bitch. Archon dropped an excellent debut in 2010. Ruins at Dusk was a heady slab of mountainous, hypnotic doom . It was full of spiring psychedelia and layers of wah-drenched guitars and I hoped for more from their follow-up. Ouroboros Collapsing lands on a distinctly darker note, swapping the larger than […]

The UK’s husband and wife doom team return with their fifth album of big amps and bigger riffs. Carolyn and Pete have taken their wall of amps and brilliantly fuzzed out tone to a new level on Maleficia Lamiah and produced their finest album yet. The two tracks on offer dump a load of classic […]

Italy’s Caronte sound something like Electric Wizard fronted by a super baked Glenn Danzig. They channel the Wizard’s occult atmosphere from Witchcult Today, and the more straightforward stoner doom of Sloth’s Voice of God for their debut full-length Ascension. Thick, burly guitars, Oborn-esque leads, and big swinging riffs that transform into cultic atmospheres congeal for […]

Average doom, thy name is Witchsorrow. Not much has changed since their debut in 2010. They are still plying the same straightforward style of doom rooted in classic St. Vitus and Cathedral. God Curse Us is as decent as their debut and unfortunately just as unremarkable. And that’s really as far as it goes. Nothing […]

Rejoice! All ye who’ve hoped and prayed over the past several years for a return of the SnailKing, the second half of Ufomammut’s two part Oro has arrived. Rather than continue on in vein of Opus Primum’s spacious doom, the Italian trio has returned to their gritty sludge roots on Opus Alter with faster and […]

Dorset’s Ramesses have quickly followed up Take the Curse with Possessed by the Rise of Magik. Though in the same musical horror show their previous albums occupied, they’ve returned with a nightmarishly frayed and fucked blackened production that is irritatingly hollow. It’s hard to be too negative though because I kept coming back even when […]

Ufomammut has been one of the most consistent doom bands of the past decade. The band released five albums from 2000 to 2010, not including the brilliant collaboration with Lento, and there’s not a mediocre album in the bunch. They’ve cultivated a unique sound that layers ebbing tides of lashing doom riffs with synths and […]

Newcastle’s prolific drone-doom team is back with another mesmerizing dose of psychedelic drone. Mana Yood Sushai marks something of a milestone for the band, since it is their first release recorded in a proper studio. Last years Beyond Ancient Space was a crushing piece of lo-fi droning doom, dense with foreboding atmosphere. Despite the music […]

Tort is yet another success from Spain’s blossoming doom scene. Spawned from the same fetid breeding ground that produced Eight Hands for Kali, Graveyard, and Warchetype, and featuring ex-members of Lords of Bukkake and Cuerno, Tort was formed out of a desire to play something other than “sad and slow doom”. Their debut for Totalrust […]

Israel’s Total Rust Music has carved out a nice little niche for themselves on the black/doom/sludge genre with a number of quality releases from the likes of Highgate, Lords of Bukkake, Pyramido, Funeralium and such. 2012 looks to be of to a similarly high quality start with a trio of releases by Spain’s Tort, French black […]