Doomed For Metal Reviews

Bronco is a doom metal band from North Carolina who have hit the scene hard with their bestial full-length, self-titled debut.    Their metallum page lists them as stoner doom, which I would say is pretty accurate, but this is a far more vicious album than most stoner doom metal bands pull off.  I absolutely love it when doom bands play a stoner/psych doom with an old school vibe but have extreme, abrasive vocals.  It’s a contrast that I have always found highly engaging.  Bronco takes this approach—thick, fat riffs from a time long gone but with vocals that I could peel paint off the walls.  Love it, love it, love it.   A lot of the music is trippy as hello too.  I don’t do drugs but if I did, I’d probably feel right at home listening to this.  The opening moments of “ Scourge Descent ,” is a melodic psychedelic trip down a weird, multi-colored hole.  Then the damn breaks and mountainous riffs drop like a ten ton hammer.  Guit...

Norilsk is a doom metal band from Canada, who formed in 2012.  Their latest album, “ Antipole ,” is their fourth full-length album; they have also released two EPs.  This album is apparently centered around the concept of duality and I can hear that in the music.  Although rooted in doom, with a hefty mix of death and post elements thrown in, the tempo varies from slow to fast paced.  The atmosphere is cold and rigid, not unlike a frozen wasteland.  However, there are a lot of melodies contained within that have a sense of warm familiarity to them.   This is very much an embrace of that duality concept I spoke up earlier, with the swirling together of these light and dark elements. “ Antipole ,” is an unique album because of how well they bend the music to their subject matter.   The album opens with the title track, a very bold statement and also a showing of confidence for their music.  It begins with the deep rumbling of bass, a truly...

Havukruunu is a Finnish black metal band that formed in 2005.  Their latest album, “ Tavastland ,” is their fourth full-length album; they have also released four demos and three EPs. This is an utterly engrossing album with so many great things going for it.  The cold, blackened feel that makes the genre so good in the first place is present.  Raging drums, razor-sharp guitars, and abrasive vocals round the elements that would already make this album a solid experience, even if these were the only things it offered.  However, “ Tavastland ,” is an album of dynamics that runs through a myriad approach of sounds all the while remaining ridiculously cohesive and focused.  Traditional metal, folk, melodic, and maybe even some power metal because fuck it why not are melded into its atmosphere. Most importantly, this entire album is highly memorable.  When the band fires on all cylinders, I often found myself humming along to the music and that’s not something t...

Sepulchral Curse is a death metal band from Finland who formed in 2013. Their latest album “ Crimson Moon Evocations ,” is their 3rd full-length album; they have also released four EPs. I've followed the band since their debut and even reviewed their second album, “ Abhorrent Dimensions ,” when I wrote for Metal Temple. As much as I loved that album, “Crimson Moon Evocations ,” is just as good, if not better. Why? Because it's different while also combining a lot of the sounds presented on the previous two albums while forging a path all its own. This album is far more melodic than the previous two albums–however, don’t let that fool you into thinking this is, in any way, a less than brutal presentation of Finnish death metal supremacy!  The melodies are dark and moody, embracing the classic Finnish style of melancholy.  Aleksi , Jaakko , and Niilas weave their incantations so thoroughly into the fabric of the songs that the album retains an oppressive air of death metal brut...

Carcolh is a doom metal band from France, that formed in 2016.  Their latest release, “ Twilight of the Mortals ,” is their third full-length album.  The band leans towards a more old-school, traditional style of doom metal that focuses on soaring vocals and huge riffs.  But it sounds very modern, in terms of sonic density—this album is HEAVY.  Being doom, the songs are slow to mid-paced for the most part but there is undeniable energy to their music that I found to be highly engaging and gripping from beginning to end.   There are few things in life I like more than a doom album that embraces what it is without any apologies.  " Twilight of the Mortals " is that album.  It’s subtleties go a long way into making the music so appeal, specifically how the band handles their sense of melody.  It’s got more than enough melodic edges and catchy harmonies but they are presented as one big sound that moves along as confidently as the heavier aspects...

Karla Kvlt is a German band who combines doom metal with sludge and post-rock elements.  The band was formed by guitarist Markus E. Lipka , the driving force behind alternative/noise rock band Eisenvater .  His son, Johann Wientjes , joins him on drums/synths and his daughter-in-law, Teresa Matilda Curtens supplies bass and vocals; both are in the band Melting Palms . To be honest,  I wasn’t sure what to expect from this release—I’ve never heard of any of the musicians or the bands they are from. To be further honest, I usually avoid anything with the tags ‘alternative,’ and ‘noise,’ but I also saw the words doom, sludge, and post in the press release so I dived fully into this release. I’m glad I took a chance because “ Thunderhunter ,” is a darkly unapologetic raw album that embraces a lot of styles while still firmly belonging to the doom/sludge genre.  It’s atmospheric as hell, using its distortion to sprawl out like some intangible force that suffocates everyth...