Tag: doom metal
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GRUESOME GREG’S TOP 15 CONCERTS OF 2019
Gruesome Greg looks back on some of the best shows he shot in 2019.
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Monolord – No Comfort
By the release of their fourth album, Rust, Monolord has well defined their sound. You could thus say this record sounds very Monolordy…or Monolordian? With that said, they do switch it up on a couple of tracks… “The Bastard Son” kicks off this six-song, 48-minute effort in true Monolordian fashion, with a slithering stoner-doom riff…
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Holy Grove – II
OK, stop me if you’ve heard this one before. Female-fronted Portland outfit mixes heavy riffs and soaring vocals on one of the best doom metal albums of the year. Only this time, we’re not talkin’ bout Witch Mountain, but rather the second record from recent Ripple Music signing Holy Grove. II kicks off with a…
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Virgin Black – Requiem Pianissimo
Requiem – Pianissimo is both opening and resolution. This long-awaited release presents the first section of Virgin Black’s three-part requiem but it also brings the trilogy to a close, completing the two-hour and thirty-three-minute masterpiece more than a decade after it began. Although Pianissimo opens the requiem series, to me this album begins in what…
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Windhand – Eternal Return
Windhand has consistently been one of my favourite doom bands of the past few years. They’ve shown that “female-fronted doom” isn’t limited to cloaks, capes and songs about Satan while cranking out a string of pretty solid records. But when I heard the initial press describing Eternal Return as a “doom/grunge” album, namedropping the likes…
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Kingwitch – Under The Mountain
This is an extremely impressive debut album; anyone whose taste runs from Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath through to Mastodon will find much to enjoy here. Kingwitch’s musicianship is extremely strong as is their songwriting; these are truly great songs, catchy and complex at the same time, with truly engaging lyrics. At times I was reminded…
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The Skull – The Endless Road Turns Dark
When The Skull played Toronto on a cold winter’s night in January, they ran through Trouble’s self-titled in its entirety before tacking on a couple of originals at the end. Hey, after all, that 1990 record has been long out of print, and this outfit includes both Eric Wagner, the voice of Trouble, along with…
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Witch Mountain – Witch Mountain
The three previous albums from Witch Mountain – Cauldron of the Wild, South of Salem, Mobile of Angels – are truly superb. This is the first Witch Mountain album with Kayla Dixon on vocals. She has an incredible voice, powerful, heartfelt. The songs are excellent. This is timeless music, made for all the right reasons. Billy Anderson…
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Horehound – Holocene
Pittsburgh has been a pretty solid, low-key player on the doom scene ever since Dream Death first coined the term “sludge metal” by blending doom and thrash in the 80’s. Continuing the tradition of bands like Penance, Argus and Brimstone Coven, Horehound is currently shopping its second album, Holoscene, to like-minded labels. This six-track, 44-minute…
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Forming the Void – Rift
Lafayette, Louisiana might only be 150 miles from New Orleans, but native sons Forming the Void are much further removed from the NOLA sludge metal of Eyehategod or Crowbar. Their 2017 record Relic reminded me of a cross between Torche and Sleep, with a side of early Mastodon, and landed on my year-end top 10…