Witnesses man Greg Schwan told me before the release of Joy that it is his best album. That’s bold considering I hold his releases in high regard, but especially Doom II. It’s certainly because it’s the first album I heard. I like bold statements though because confidence makes me pay attention. To begin the album, […]

Scald is a name that appears in heavy metal lore. Specifically, the epic doom genre, or as their new album indicates, Ancient Doom Metal. I was taken aback when I saw that they were going to be releasing a new album, considering the first and only was in 1997. I heard Will of the Gods […]

WyndRider is a young upcoming stoner doom metal act from Tennessee.  In their short existence since 2022 they have released their self-titled debut last year and now Revival.  I’ve recently been in communication with Chloe Gould, their singer, and have been mightily impressed with her vocals, after receiving this promo to review.  I was so […]

I don’t know how I missed the debut of this project formed by Mark Reed, keyboardist from Winterfylleth, one of the UK’s very best black metal exports of the last 15 years. They released an album in 2022 called Take Up My Bones, which I shall immediately be procuring after hearing Untouched by Fire. Like […]

Three years ago I reviewed the self-titled, debut album from California’s epic doom metal band Stygian Crown and really loved it.  I was happy to see my friend, Rhett Davis, drumming on it, a legendary drummer from Crimson Relic, Morgion and Gravehill, and many other bands, both past and present.  The original line-up with guitarists […]

So album number 14 (or 15, depending on how you view 2011s Evinta) from England’s long-running Godfathers of Doom sees the band continue down the path of the last album, 2020s The Ghost of Orion, and the subsequent Macabre Cabaret EP both releases I was a bit ambivalent on. Since the band’s 1999 transitional effort […]

Mid-West death doomsters Dusk had a cool album back in 1995 …Majestic Thou in Ruin.  After breaking up in the late 90’s they reformed in 2015 and this is the band’s second full-length album Dissolve into Ash, at the end of 2023. The legitimacy of such a reformation, which happened several years back, is the […]

I’m surprised this project didn’t get more attention earlier this autumn. It is a project formed from the ashes of Cruish-Nir, which was Romanian lyricist/conceptualist Valentin Untaru and multi-instrumentalist Robert Cotoros. However, after the passing of Cotoros in 2020, Untaru resurrected the project but gathered some well-known musicians to bring his lyrics and concepts to […]

In the end, how do you want to be remembered? Will you be remembered at all? The ultimate weight of our own legacy hangs like a formless specter, bearing down on us with every waking moment, growing heavier and more gnarled with every step towards this life’s inevitable conclusion. And that’s kind of a bitch, […]

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, […]

Look, I am, by my own admission, a long-winded individual. Especially so when talking about heavy metal, but with The Garden, the eighth full-length album from Finnish “Beauty &/vs the Beast” deathly doomsters, Hanging Garden, I simply don’t need to be. The straight up truth is that when it comes to The Garden, I’m just […]

Kat Shevil Gillham is in yet another doom band, one of the bands she is the vocalist for heavy hitters Thronehammer, which is a personal favorite of mine.  For Nine Altars she does vocals and plays drums and this is the debut album, 3 songs at over 30 minutes..yes these are some long ass songs. […]

I’ve mentioned this more than once on this site (most recently on my review for Megaton Sword‘s excellent Might & Power), but I take great pleasure in imagining the world of Traditional Heavy Metal as an endless sea of mighty warriors clashing in righteous battle for the right to sit upon the throne of Heavy Metal and […]

I’m always a little dubious when a band is claimed to be the “fathers of (X-Genre)” these days, especially when that “X” is something really hyper-specific. Take these Germans, AHAB for example: 19 year veterans in the metal scene, so certainly not a newcomer trying to make a name for themselves or anything like that […]

For a band known more for it’s morose atmospheres, downtempo paces and overall depressive tones, Katatonia sure has a way of getting albums off to a quick and, at least in my case, startling beginning. I swear, it’s like the band is fucking with me, or at the very least trying to catch us all […]

I struggle to think of another band revered with such legendary status as Candlemass has within the pantheons of Heavy Metal, with as strange and unorthodox a journey as theirs over their almost 40 year career. The breakups, reformations and seemingly endless string of cryptic hints at retirement, the rotating lineup of ex-members entering and […]

High the Memory, the second album from Norway’s Abyssic was one of the more underrated surprises for me back in 2019. Using a base in UK funeral doom ( My Dying Bride notably) and adding a dominant cinematic symphonic/orchestral layer, it was a superb album that made the world of lumbering doom a little more […]

Norway’s four-piece Kryptograf return with their second album, The Eldorado Spell, after their scorching self-titled debut from two years ago. Chalk this band up to another new favorite Rini band. Kryptograf play a heavy doom with psychedelic moments. I’d say throw classic Sabbath in a blender and mix in Trouble, Khemmis as well as the […]

This review has had several different openings (like your mom). At first, I was disappointed with the new Deathwhite. Maybe it’s because of lofty expectations, being a big fan of their previous gothic-tinged doom. Think modern Katatonia with better choruses. Yeah, I said it. However, after a very short amount of time, I found myself […]

Here’s a short little EP from an emerging artist, Witnesses, who dabbles in doom as well as the ambient genres. While I am not a fan of the ambient genre in general, I am a massive fan of the doom part of the sound Greg Schwan has conjured. So when he asked if he could […]

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 […]

I do not need music to help me achieve a depressed state, Hangman’s Chair, okay? I do very well with that as my default, thank you very much. However, if you’re unlike me (for your own sake, let’s hope), maybe you just need that nudge or like to feel miserable sometimes. If so, A Loner, […]

Potentially the greatest perk of writing for a metal site (if you call what I do writing) is getting to connect with underground artists such as Crawl Below’s Charlie Sad Eyes. Not long after his previous album and personal year-end lister, 9 Mile Square was released, he mentioned to me that the next Crawl Below […]

Here’s an interesting one from FDA records. Released a bit before the latest Ophis album, Spew Forth Odium, earlier last autumn, The Tragedy is the third album from this Finnish doom act whom I have never heard and frankly had very little expectations for. The logo, the band/album name, the fact there are hardly any […]

In their short existence, Denver’s doom metal act Khemmis have created some of the best metal these ears have heard in a while.  I credit my buddy and former Deepsend Records owner, Graham Landers with introducing them to me some years ago and their three prior albums and eps are all excellent and well played […]