Presumption – From Judgement To The Grave
Doom metal from France… tres bon! Presumption put many bands to shame with a unique sound that, while it draws from the likes of Cathedral and Trouble, builds on these influences. It’s always more authentic to hear a band sing in their native tongue, as on the excellent ‘La Meffraye’. All the tracks are great, but the highlight is the splendidly named ‘Anvil Devil’, which name-checks Aleister Crowley. Elsewhere, tracks like ‘Samsara’ lay down the law of doom as the whole of the law! A band that deserve a much wider audience; killer album artwork too!
(Self-Released, 2014)
Presumption – Ancestral Rites
French doomsters Presumption are one of metal’s great secrets, but not for much longer! After the excellent From Judgement To The Grave release, they returned in 2016 with a new EP. Ancestral Rites features three new studio song, and two live tracks. The three new songs – ‘Broken Eyes, ‘Ancestral Rites’ and ‘Astral Death’ – are a marked progression from their previous release, excellent as it was. The band is tight; this is a real band, not a Facebook ‘project’ (careful now, down with that kind of thing!). The songs are first class, the band locking together like a single entity. The splendidly named singer Moomoot has a truly original voice, and the diversity of Presumption’s material is impressive – they’re not afraid to go from a heavy passage to a subtle one. They really have that Cathedral/Black Sabbath spirit – the songs really are that good. Kudos to the analogue production, no pro-tools trash here! The two live tracks, ‘Albert Fish Blues’ and ‘Dr. Satan’, show Presumption to be electric on stage. Hopefully we’ll see them play on other shores sometime soon.
(Self-Release, 2016)
