Doomed For Metal Reviews

Legions of Doom is a doom metal band born from the tragic passing of doom metal legend Eric Wagner ( The Skull , Trouble , Blackfinger ).  The material on this debut album, “The Skull 3,” is from what would have been on The Skull ’s third full-length album but realized in a different form. After getting the blessing of the Eric ’s family, The Skull guitarist Lothar Keller and Bassist Ron Holzner ( Trouble ) welcomed drummer Henry Vasquez ( Saint Vitus , Pentagram , Blood of the Sun ), guitarist Scott Little ( Leadfoot ), vocalists Karl Agell ( Lie , Heavy , Leadfoot , COC , Patriarchs In Black ) and Scott Reagers ( Saint Vitus ).   If you’re familiar with The Skull , then Legions of Doom will find a place in your collection as well.  It’s low, slow, and heavy.  As I always ask, when it comes to doom metal, what more could you possibly ask for? “ The Skull 3 ” acts  as both a loving tribute to Eric but also as an example of his everlasting legacy.  ...

ÇÖKÜŞ is a doom/heavy metal band from Chicago who are new to the scene.  They have burst forth from the underground metal scene with their debut full-length album “ An Hour of Lies .” The band may be new but the members themselves are veterans of the scene, as they are made up from former members of Earthen Grave.  In addition, the members also found themselves in a variety of bands, including Vanishment , Lair of the Minotaur , Witchcryer , and The Living Fields .  In addition, they are joined by bassist Patrick Green and guitarist Steve Ligeza ( Torg , Makahiya ).   Although it’s definitely rooted in a more traditional version of doom metal, I can hear some “grunge” influences as well.  It’s a rather compelling listen, they use their various influences well and create a sound all their own.  Oh, and the album is stuffed to the gills with kick ass riffs.  Despite their doom foundation, they don’t always play slow either so there are more than a f...

Hammerfilosofi is a black metal band, whose members hail from both Norway and Italy.  The duo formed in 2020 and made their debut last year with their full-length “ The Desolate One .”  A year later and they are back with another powerful statement in the form of the ep “ Solus ( Igne Natura Renovator Integra )”.   Consisting of four songs and a runtime of 25 minutes, there is quite a bit of content to explore here. Each song is multi-layered, requiring multiple listens to absorb every nightmarish detail.  Fortunately, these sprawling songs are held together by exemplary songwriting so replaying this frightening beast over and over again isn’t a problem. According to the press release I received, the band wants to “musically and conceptually bring back some of that rebellious pride, wrath, and danger that for us are mandatory ingredients in black metal.”  The band definitely accomplishes this. The music on this album shrouds itself in the element of dange...

Solitary is a UK thrash metal band that formed in 1994.  “ Embrace The Darkness ” is their fifth full-length album. Over the years they have also released three demos, two EPs, two live albums, a compilation,  and a split. I’ll be completely honest:  thrash metal is my least listened to genre.  It isn’t that I don’t like it; on the contrary, my formative years in discovering my taste were very much thrash oriented.  Everything from the classic bands like Megadeth and Anthrax to more modern heavy weights like Dew Scented and The Haunted could be found in my collection.   But over the years it seems thrash has lost its bite.  The old guard can’t keep up and a lot of the new bands seem to be doing it “paint by numbers.”  But the exact moment I pushed play on this promo, everything I thought I knew about the direction of the genre changed.  What is this?  A band that has been around for a while that still has it?  Has the venom a...

Sanctuarium is a death metal band from Barcelona that formed in 2021.  It originally was a one-man band, that man being Marc Rodriguez .  But he added additional members and, after a demo and a split album with Magick Howl , released their debut album, “ Into The Mephitic Abyss .”  The band is firing on all cylinders, wasting little time and dropping their second full-length album, “ Melted and Decompose d.”  This album is absolutely FILTHY.  The five long songs spend 48 minutes doing exactly what the album’s title offers.  As these cavernous, often doom-inspired, leviathans of decayed music atrocities lumber their way through, they break down, destroy completely, and let the pain just fester until nothing is left but a rotten husk of what once was a living creature.   While the album certainly embraces aesthetics of death/doom, it doesn’t seek to stay slow and stalking all the time.  A variety of tempos await in these deep cesspools of human...

Distant Dominion is a new extreme metal band that hits hard and fast with their blazing debut album, “ Ripping Through Time .”  The band might be new but its members have years of experience in such bands as Krieg , Rumpelstiltskin Grinder , Polterchrist , Mortal Decay and others. But “ Ripping Through Time ,” isn’t just another run-of-the-mill extreme metal experience.  I have discovered this album is a well-crafted death machine that offers a lot more variety than the average extreme metal album.  It has just enough of a technical flair to add a flashy pedigree to the void it so viciously spits out.  It’s fast like thrash but wrapped up in a death metal extremity and the destitute, raw atmosphere of the bleakest black metal.   As if that wasn’t enough, there is clearly an influence from classic metal and a firm grasp on incorporating melody within these charred walls of chaos. The album is mastered by Dan Swanö , so of course it sounds absolutely amazing...

I’m not sure what a Moose Cult is.  Is this a cult of moose that gather in their black masses?  Or is it a group of humans who are obsessed with Moose?  Or maybe it is a new kick ass doom band? Well, it may be one of the first two but it’s definitely the last one.  Born out of the pandemic after writing a lot of riffs, Jonny Moose (oh ok, that’s where the name comes from) joined forces with members of Monsterworks , Thūn , Smokescreen and Bull Elephant to release Moose Cult ’s sophomore album, “ Book of the Machines .”   I’m not familiar with any of these bands except for the excellent Bull Elephant but that is enough of a pedigree to warrant me checking out this album, though I haven’t had time to dive into their debut just yet.   “ Book of the Machines ,” is quite the dynamic album!  It embraces a death/doom sound but also incorporates more traditional doom elements as well.  It’s melodic when it needs to be, bulldozer heavy at o...

Har is a Berlin-based blackened death metal of Israeli descent who formed in 2014.  After a demo and a couple of EPs, the band is ready to launch their full-length debut album “ Cursed Creation .”   With a runtime of just over 30 minutes across 8 tracks, the album is a breakneck piece of searing music that offers no respite—it starts off hard and just doesn’t stop with the exception of the interlude “ Infernal Passage, ” but even that one offers abrasive noise that bridges the gap to the next two songs of utter annihilation.  The echo on the vocals is perfect—just enough to give it an arcane, haunted feel without going overboard and taking away their brutal performance.  I really like the production as well.  It’s certainly not clean but neither is it too raw.  Its own balance lets the guitar tones carry a real bite and provides the bass/drums with a heft to their tone.   Listen to this album with headphones and will definitely fill up the sp...

  Phenocryst is a death metal band from Portugal, who formed in 2020.  After releasing their debut ep, “Explosions,” in 2021, the band is dropping their full-length debut “ Cremation Pyre .” And what an album it is!  The band’s style is extreme to the tenth degree but it also contains a horde of other elements; doom and psychedelic tendencies can be found within the album’s 8 track, 39 minute runtime. A phenocryst is a type of crystal formed in volcanic rock—a fitting name for the band as their subject matter is based around volcanic disasters.  The music often reflects such cataclysmic events by offering moments of blistering speed with slower, methodical moments.  Volcanoes take time to build up their devastation, after all. The opening song, “ Pinnacle of Death ,” begins with a heavy, sweltering blanket of riffs that creep up to its explosive run that begins at the 35 second mark.   The drums are fast, crisp, and on point like deadly strikes of lighting ...

Mortal Blood is a doom metal band from Baltimore, Maryland.  “ Harbingers of Chaos ,” is their full-length debut album; they have also released two EPs.  It’s actually a one-man project, the mastermind behind it, Dan Krell , writing, performing, and even producing/mastering the entire album.  Mortal Blood ’s brand of doom contains a lot of different elements, including Gothic, death, and black metal.  It’s an interesting concept because even though there isn’t a shortage of band’s playing these styles, “ Harbingers of Chaos ” sounds like a unique experience.  There is no doubt the album definitely has an apocalyptic atmosphere to it, the audio version of the cover art.   The ebb and flow of the music is very tight, grasping on certain concepts with full attention to detail before moving on to a different path.  The first song, “ Incantations of the Damned ,” is a prime example of which I speak.  This particular song is all about the build up...

Gutvoid is a death metal band from Toronto, Canadawho formed in 2019. Their latest release, “ Breathing Obelisk ” is their second EP; they have also released a full-length and a split. Gutvoid and “ Breathing Obelisk ” are filth soaked in horror, burned in the cold vacuum of space and then resurrected as some sort of entity from which the only fate is death, or maybe something worse. The music matches the album’s artwork, that is for certain. The melodies, if you want to call them that, are cold and distant. The tone of the guitars are deep and expansive but offer the pressure of near unbearable weight. The band is at their best when the rhythm is tight but laced with ambient, spacey textures that make the songs scream out in unbridled terror. It takes a special band to harness the underground appeal of death metal while stepping it’s box. Gutvoid is that band and across the 30 minute, 4 song runtime, they grasp the void with outstretched claws. Can something be as scary as it...

Cobranoid is a metal band from Denver, Colorado who have dropped this banger of a debut self-titled EP. The FFO section of their press release that was sent to me mentions High On Fire .  Indeed, such a name drop requires a pedigree that few bands in the stoner/doom/sludge genre could back up.  Despite being a “newer” band with only this album under their belt so far, they back it up extremely well across this blistering six song, 29 minute speed ball of an album.  Their press release also called them a mix of thrash/speed and doom.  Once again, the band straight up nails that sound. It might be hard to believe that a band could be both doom and thrash but, the truth is, doom doesn’t always have to be slow.  Sometimes it is mid paced with a lot of groove—this isn't funeral or Gothic doom.  Much like HoF , Cobranoid mixes several genres at once and can go from slow to fast at the drop of a hat.  Regardless of how you may or may not feel about what they ...

Dead Sacraments is a doom metal band from Chicago, Illinois that formed in 2019. Their latest release, “The Pale Temple and Others ,” is their second full-length album.  This album is a gargantuan experience!  It consists of four massive slabs of doom, none of them under 10 minutes in length.  This is the kind of music I like:  long songs with a ton of depth and many great passages to them.  It’s expansive and deep but not to the point where it meanders off or loses track of itself.  The album is actually quite focused in every aspect, the song lengths running by smoothly.  I suppose some bands, even doom ones, bloat their music for the sake of it.  But that isn’t the case for “ The Pale Temple and Others .”  Every second is used because every second is needed. The songs don’t offer any real type of structure…this isn’t “verse, chorus, verse,” music and it’s all the better for it.  This allows each song to sound truly adventurous with r...

Deceased is an extreme metal band from Virginia who formed in 1985. “ Children of the Morgue ” is their 11th full-length album, although since their previous two were just cover albums, this is their first full-length of original material since 2018.   They are one of the more original bands from the scene, their sound not strictly being only death metal. They also incorporate aspects of hardcore punk, thrash, and traditional metal into their repertoire.  Despite its dynamic and eclectic musical path, “ Children of the Morgue ,” is a cohesive album with a decent flow from track to track. There are quite a few short tracks that act as interludes of sorts; they are of very degrees of style.  " Turn To Wither ,” is the best of them as it’s a riff focused instrumental that bridges the gap between two very good songs. With that being said, I could do without the other ones but, ultimately, they do serve their purpose. Regardless, the full songs are all solid and ther...

Vomitrot is a Swedish death metal band who formed in 2019.  Their latest release “ Emetic Imprecations ,” is their second album; they also released a demo in 2020. Based on the band’s name, artwork, promo photos and the song titles, I was fully prepared for “ Emetic Imprecations ,” to be absolutely insane.    I don’t think I truly could have ever been prepared for the special type of carnage that exists within this blistering six track, 26 minute long album. A lot of death metal is brutal, unnerving or abrasive.  Vomitrot offers that…plus nonstop insanity and a 100% uncompromising take against what constitutes good taste.  Does that sound like something you would like?  Hell yes, it does.  If not, why are you reading this review?  Go get some taste and come back to see me later.   That is, if I’m still alive.  If anything is going to kill me, if I am indeed going to be found a dead and bloated corpse wearing headphones, it will be b...

Phaëthon is an epic heavy metal band from London, England who formed in 2020. “ Wielder of the Steel ” is their full-length debut album but they have also released a split, demo, and an EP. So many bands mix various styles together these days and, while there is absolutely nothing wrong with that, it is refreshing to hear some good ol fashion heavy fucking metal. Of course, it could be argued there is power and speed metal involved but let’s not split hairs.   The 8 track, 42 minute long runtime will split you in half anyway as the band hammer out song after song.   Music of this nature runs the risk of sounding dated but “ Wielder of the Steel ” avoids that with a crystal clear modern production that still gives the band plenty of bite. The album does sound like a tribute the their influences in many ways but it also stands tall on its own and sounds fresh.  Vrath ’s vocals are exciting and energetic—his is a mid range voice that is expressive and power but ...