Color the decade starting in 2020 as looking to be a stellar one for doom with women at the mic. Solstice has Hilda Thorne out front now, Stygian Crown just released a monster debut album, and for this review we have King Witch’s second album Body of Light.
It is undeniable that Italy has a rich rock and metal history. In these spectacular movements like flashy power metal or grandiose progressive rock, there were always artists with the desire to create darker music.
There aren’t a ton of doom metal bands more revered than Saint Vitus, and it is for good reason. Of Black Sabbath’s disciples in the 80’s, they are perhaps the most honest and soulful of the bunch, if not exactly a 1:1 copy of the original masters. Rather, what Vitus did is that they applied the atonality, loose song structure, and just pure griminess of American punk to the emerging doom metal format at a time in the 80’s when the early bands were forging their own styles and defining the subgenre on their own terms.
After an impressive demo, Los Angeles’s epic doom juggernaut Stygian Crown is bringing the thunder on a new full-length album. And some high-class retro thunder is what they do indeed bring on their debut for a well-chosen label Cruz Del Sur. This seems to be the year and the season for top shelf female fronted doom.
From the ashes of several previous bands and the eerie corners of Sweden came Head of the Demon. In the eighth year of their existence, they are about to release their third album, aptly named as Deadly Black Doom, on Walpurgis Night, the 30th of April.
Fully intent on striking while the iron is still hot, Smoulder are primed to release a new EP titled Dream Quest Ends in just over a week. In partnership with our friends over at the NWOTHM Full Albums YouTube channel, we have an exclusive track premiere and interview for you all to enjoy ahead of time!
Most people today know about the bands that were direct results of Black Sabbath; for example, Candlemass, Saint Vitus, Pentagram, Solitude Aeternus, Trouble, Solstice etc. These bands are classics for a reason, they provide something new and they excel at it. Sometimes, though, a band takes their influences and innovates just enough to “perfect” the sounds. In doom metal, it’s not as clear as who that might be, but I’d argue that band could have been Blood Farmers.
For over 15 years, Athens has been hosting one of the most important Traditional Metal Festivals in the world, Up The Hammers! This guide will provide you with information about the festival, the bands, and the city itself, hoping to make your visit more pleasant and get you ready for the Greek Heavy Metal marathon.
We recently published our Best of 2019 article and a few weeks ago we made a post urging you all to vote for your own favorite album of 2019. Well it’s time to take a look at how you, the reader, voted for the best albums of 2019 and compare!
The first three Pentagram albums and the First Daze comp are essential to anybody metalhead’s collection; Day of Reckoning is no exception to the bunch. Excellent album, and at times absolutely stellar.