MOURNFUL CONGREGATION
“The Incubus Of Karma”
Osmose Productions / 20 Buck Spin /
Weird Truth Productions
“Founded in 1993, MOURNFUL CONGREGATION have become one of the most influential funeral doom metal bands on the planet. Being Australia’s slowest export, they have constantly been evolving their impressive style of crawling heaviness starting with the debut ‘Tears From A Grieving Heart’ (1999), followed by crushing ‘The Monad Of Creation’ (2005), glacial ‘The June Frost’ (2009) and majestic ‘The Book Of Kings’ (2011). Another seven years later, MOURNFUL CONGREGATION are back with ‘The Incubus Of Karma’ marking their bleakest and most haunting opus so far. Delivers grandiosely played, two-voiced guitar melodies that take you on a mesmerizing trip through mental darkness and infinite suffering.” (SM)
WITCHSKULL
“Coven’s Will”
Rise Above Records
“Boasting eight, groove-driven slabs of infernal fury, ‘Coven’s Will’ pulls off the neat trick of sounding simultaneously timeless and timely, as the fundamental principles of our beloved genre are fed through the Australians’ pitch-black prism and spat out in a shower of wild, hallucinatory devil blues.”
APOSTLE OF SOLITUDE
“From Gold To Ash”
Cruz Del Sur Music
“At the very latest since their stunning predecessor ‘Of Woe And Wounds’ (2014) and a jaw dropping show at the Hammer Of Doom festival, Indiana’s APOSTLE OF SOLITUDE belong to the top bands of the traditional doom metal genre. Their actual album is called ‘From Gold To Ash’ serving dramatically rolling hymns of gloom and sorrow adorned with Chuck Brown’s captivating vocals and razor sharp guitar leads. Favorite tracks: ‘Keeping The Lighthouse’ and ‘My Heart Is Leaving Here’!” (SM)
UN
“Sentiment”
Translation Loss Records
“Seattle-based UN revealed ‘Sentiment’, which is a mesmerizing piece of crawling funeral doom metal full of haunting melodies and leaden agony in the vein of genre grandmasters Ahab!” (SM)
HOODED MENACE
“Ossuarium Silhouettes Unhallowed”
Season Of Mist
“On their fifth album, ‘Ossuarium Silhouettes Unhallowed’, HOODED MENACE from Finland perfectly interweave slowly crushing, hymnal doom with 90s style technical death metal. Partially feels like My Dying Bride recruited Death-mastermind Chuck Schuldiner (R.I.P.) to make the guitars cry and shred!” (SM)
COLTSBLOOD
“Ascending Into Shimmering Darkness”
Candlelight / Spinefarm Records
“Second full-length album, ‘Ascending Into Shimmering Darkness’, by Liverpool’s COLTSBLOOD provides bleakest, painfully crawling funeral/death doom metal of the highest quality level, which is interspersed with sludge and grind driven rage. A sonically devastating piece of grief and despair!” (SM)
THE SKULL
“The Endless Road Turns Dark”
Tee Pee Records
“Recruiting two ex-Trouble members including Ron Holzner (bass) and Eric Wagner (vocals) as well as Witch Mountain guitarist Rob Wrong and ex-Cathedral drummer Brian Dixon, THE SKULL play most traditional doom metal. Started in 2012 to perform early Trouble material live, THE SKULL already released their second album called ‘The Endless Road Turns Dark’ providing brand new material that pays homage to the good old ‘Psalm 9’ and ‘The Skull’ times. Serves eight absolutely authentic, ultra-heavy tracks of thick and catchy doom metal. There has never been more Trouble with THE SKULL as on the new full-length!” (SM)
BENEATH OBLIVION
“The Wayward And The Lost”
Weird Truth Productions
“‘The Wayward and the Lost’ is the third album by Ohio’s BENEATH OBLIVION, who grandiosely combine utterly crawling, sorrowful funeral and death doom metal with sludge style nihilism in both the immanent melodiosity of the full album and the abysmally gurgling and desperately crying twin vocals. Breathtakingly beautiful and pulping!” (SM)
DAWN OF WINTER
“Pray For Doom”
I Hate Records
“Being one of Germany’s most senior doom metal bands DAWN OF WINTER released ‘Pray For Doom’, their third full-length album in almost 30 years of existence. Adds another chapter of traditionally paving heaviness filled to the brim with epic storytelling and desperately crawling, ever haunting melodies for sorely afflicted genre purists. Masterpiece!” (SM)
WITCHSORROW
“Hexenhammer”
Candlelight / Spinefarm Records
“If 2018 needs a soundtrack to its madness, WITCHSORROW have provided it. Heavier, darker, doomier, and more metal than ever before, one of doom’s leading lights have made the perfect album for our times.”
WINDHAND
“Eternal Return”
Relapse Records
“WINDHAND have crafted a record brilliant in scope, powerful in execution, and perfect for an era of increasingly blurry yet still heavy stylistical borders. Serves unbelievably catchy, grunge-infused psychedelia and rolling high end doom metal!”
DOOMED
“6 Anti-Odes To Life”
Solitude Productions
“On ‘6 Anti-Odes To Life’, DOOMED take you on a multi-faceted trip through the horrors of life combining old school doom and death metal with vast, progressively evolving soundscapes full of tons heavy guitar riffs and beautifully chanting leads. It’s both a melancholic symphony and a sonic statement to defend life against the real existing adversities.” (SM)
SLEEP
“The Sciences”
Third Man Records
“Fifteen years after their last official full-length album, SLEEP is back with six brand new tracks on ‘The Sciences’. Revives classical themes of monolithically rolling ‘Dopesmoker’ and crushing ‘Holy Mountain’ albums with Matt Pike (High On Fire) riffing at maximum distortion level and Al Cisneros monotonously bubbling Om style vocals. Less dirt but still SLEEP!” (SM)
AMAROK
“Devoured”
Translation Loss Records
“On ‘Devoured’, AMAROK combine melodiously haunting funeral doom metal with painfully distorted, gnawing drone sounds. Feels like disturbing Khanate interpret Pallbearer-style hymns of grief and despair!” (SM)
URSA
“Abyss Between The Stars”
Blood Music
“Californian doom metal virtuosi URSA released debut full-length, ‘Abyss Between the Stars’, via Blood music. Recommended for fans of Monolord’s fuzz-driven groove and Pallbearer-style gracefulness!” (SM)
FORMING THE VOID
“Rift”
Kozmik Artifactz
“On ‘Rift’, Louisiana-based band FORMING THE VOID continue their unique trip of ethereal joy and musical exploration through heavy rock history. An amazingly atmospheric, always spaced-out, vocally catching, pointedly ethnic and crushingly heavy album that is delivering a crispy modern sound – perfectly blends blues, psychedelic, heavy rock, stoner and doom metal!” (SM)
HUATA
“Lux Initiatrix Terrae”
Seeing Red Records / Sludgelord Records /
MusicFearSatan
“Filled with monolithically drifting sludge riffs, haunting melodies and almost pop-like vocals that are drenched in cosmic sound lava, ‘Lux Initiatrix Terrae’ by French HUATA is one of the stand out doom records of 2018. Combines Conan’s slowly droning heaviness with the catchiness of Mars Red Sky style fuzzy stoner, partially feels like Ghost getting high on crawling Sunn o)) distortion – jaw dropping!” (SM)
PILLARS
“Onward To Nothingness”
Seeing Red Records
“French PILLARS serve spellbinding, stoically rolling, fuzzily buzzing occult doom metal on their new album – ‘Onward to Nothingness'” (SM)
DEADBIRD
“III: The Forest Within The Tree”
20 Buck Spin
“A decade after “Twilight Ritual”, DEADBIRD from Fayetteville/Arkansas released their brand new album – ‘III: The Forest Within the Tree’ – on 20 Buck Spin Records rolling out crushing sludge/doom metal with Neurosis like magnitude!” (SM)
YOB
“Our Raw Heart”
Relapse Records
“‘Our Raw Heart’ is digging deep turning hidden emotions inside out – it’s the most possessive album YOB have ever been recording!” (SM)
DOPETHRONE
“Transcanadian Anger”
Totem Cat Records
“DOPETHRONE’s new album, ‘Transcanadian Anger’, pushes their pervasive, filthy brand of sludge metal to its most extreme and intoxicating levels.”
EAGLE TWIN
“The Thundering Heard”
Southern Lord Recordings
“Six years after ‘The Feather Tipped The Serpent’s Scale’, Salt Lake City’s extreme music duo EAGLE TWIN is back with the third full-length album. ‘The Thundering Heard’ continues their unique and relentless style combining groovy sludge and monolithic doom riffage with stomach kneading drones and ear bleeding distortion. Serves four outstanding tracks that leave you sonically crushed and trampled by thousands of hoofs!” (SM)
EVANGELIST
“Deus Vult”
Nine Records
“‘Deus Vult’ marks the third album of Cracow (Poland) based band EVANGELIST, who evolved their already grandiose epic doom metal sound to perfection serving razor sharp heavy guitars, ultra-catchy melodies and top high register vocals reminiscent of genre pioneers Solitude Aeturnus, Candlemass and the likes.” (SM)
DOMKRAFT
“Flood”
Blues Funeral Recordings
“Sweden‘s DOMKRAFT released ‘Flood’, their brand new 2nd album, on Blues Funeral Recordings serving another chapter of rhythmically haunting, tons heavy, blues-infested doom metal.” (SM)
HAUNTED
“Dayburner”
Twin Earth Records
“HAUNTED is the Sicilian answer to grand female fronted bands like Windhand or Alunah. Find top quality, stoically rolling doom metal on ‘Dayburner’, which is filled to the brim with catchy guitar riffs and Cristina Chimirri’s exceptionally soulful vocals!” (SM)
DEATHBELL
“With The Beyond”
Seeing Red Records / Kozmik Artifactz
“This female fronted four piece from Toulouse, France, celebrates fuzzed-out, cozily rolling ear worm doom with haunting vocals and hypnotic rhythms in the vein of Acid King and Alunah. Highly addictive Sabbath worship!” (SM)
BODY VOID
“I Live Inside A Burning House”
Seeing Red Records
“San Francisco’s BODY VOID submit almost an hour of painful sludge and wretched doom on ‘I Live Inside A Burning House’, expanding on their sound but still holding true to the aural assault of the predecessor. Spreads from harsh crusty sludge to torturous drone.”
CHRCH
“Light Will Consume Us All”
Neurot Recordings
“Standing at a crossroads of light and dark, CHRCH create epic, lengthy songs, with a massive low end, and a supernatural vocal presence, in a perfect blend of height and depth. (…) The band’s second full length, ‘Light Will Consume Us All’, carries with it the same quality of songwriting that caught the attention on their debut.”
ANGUISH
“Magna Est Vis Siugnah”
High Roller Records
“ANGUISH are back with the third full-length, ‘Magna Est Vis Suignah’, which is showing the Swedes reformed as a four-piece and having found back to their stylistic roots to create a masterpiece of death/doom metal. Comes with overwhelmingly heavy, mournful guitar riffs and weeping solos that tell about death and the life after.” (SM)
SINISTRO
“Sangue Cássia”
Season Of Mist
“Portugal’s SINISTRO released ‘Sangue Cássia’ continuing the sonic path paved with outstanding predecessor ‘Semente’ to evolve an even darker and heavier album that is bursting with dense atmosphere and compositional complexity. Combines enthralling doom with jazz-tinged, dreamy ambience. The extraordinary, haunting vocal style of Patrícia Andrade and vast passages reminiscent of a full string orchestra are making the album a gloomy, operatic sound experience.” (SM)
CRUTHU
“The Angel Of Eternity”
The Church Within Records
“Michigan-based CRUTHU play traditional doom metal on ‘The Angel of Eternity’, which is filled to the brim with Seventies prog and proto metal passages to give you the full dose of slowly paving lo-fi heaviness reminiscent of Sir Lord Baltimore, early Pagan Altar or Trouble and the like. Comes with stunningly catchy NWOBH style vocals by Ryan Evans!” (SM)
HOLY GROVE
“II”
Ripple Music
“On their second album HOLY GROVE push heavy rock into exciting new realms as the band continues to blur the lines between epic metal, haunting doom and cosmic stoner rock.”
MESSA
“Feast For Water”
Aural Music
“MESSA play evoking doom metal with a dark jazz twist. Deliciously haunting female vocals, rhodes piano and 70s fuzz guitars combine to conjure a sound that is all of their own. Blending influences like Windhand, Jex Thoth and Bohren Und Der Club Of Gore, the Italian band has evolved from the droning occult doom sound of their first album ‘Belfry’ to a refreshing, even darker and more atmospheric approach.”
EYE OF SOLITUDE
“Slaves To Solitude”
self-release
“Fifth full-length album, ‘Slaves To Solitude’, by London’s EYE OF SOLITUDE serves crawling funeral doom metal soaked with utter grief and despair, full of heartbreaking melodies, monolithically drifting riffage and jaw dropping growls. Feels like being trapped in your own mental abyss in search for the way out of illimitable darkness and sorrow.”(SM)
MANSION
“First Death Of The Lutheran”
I Hate Records
“Finnish (oc)cult doom band MANSION released ‘First Death Of The Lutheran’ on I Hate Records. The album is an obsessing sonic trip blending ear worm doom riffs with horrifying dark ambient sounds.” (SM)
ALKYMIST
s/t
Indisciplinarian
“ALKYMIST unveiled a stunning debut album via Indisciplinarian serving corrosive doom metal interwoven with progressive guitarscapes.” (SM)
WHEN THE DEADBOLT BREAKS
“Angels Are Weeping … God Has Abandoned”
Sliptrick Records
“On their 6th album WHEN THE DEADBOLT BREAKS from the backwoods of eastern Connecticut proclaim ‘Angels Are Weeping … God Has Abandoned’ and build a wall of doom-laden riffs that transport the listener to another space.”
MIST
“Free Me Of The Sun”
Soulseller Records
“Slovenian priestesses of doom released ten brand new songs on their first full-length album titled ‘Free Me Of The Sun’. Staying true to their traditional doom roots the band builds upon strong riffs with bright female vocals and epic guitar solos.”
DRUG CULT
s/t
Ritual Productions
“DRUG CULT’s self-titled debut serves female fronted, hypnotically rolling occult doom metal unmistakably nourishing itself from the billowing womb of the stoned master wizard!” (SM)
SILVER GRIME
“Healed By The Dark”
Inverse Records
“Swedish Epic Doom metal band Silver Grime released their debut album ‘Healed By The Dark’ on Inverse Records serving six hymns of traditionally played, slow paving heaviness and gloom – for fans of Candlemass, The Skull and the likes!” (SM)
TONS
“Filthy Flowers Of Doom”
Heavy Psych Sounds
“Forty minutes divided into five tracks of in your face sludge/doom metal – slabby and Luciferian riffs, tight drumming and a demonic voice. Low-league occultism and weed devotion are the basis of this muddy album that will drag you into a sulphurous and sabbathian void.”
DAUTHA
“Brethren Of The Black Soil”
Ván Records
“DAUTHA from Sweden recruits of actual Wardenclyffe members including Ola Blomkvist, who already was responsible for all lyrical agony and the guitars in deceased doom metal grandmasters Grifegård. After the respected ‘Den Förste’ demo (2016), DAUTHA have their debut full-length, Brethren of the Black Soil, out packing Europe’s Medieval history in six psalms full of haunting doom riffs, stirring melodies and epic choral singing.” (SM)
BLACK LABEL SOCIETY
“Grimmest Hits”
Spinefarm Records
“BLACK LABEL SOCIETY have their ‘Grimmest Hits’ out marking the tenth studio album of this southern metal act around Ozzy-guitarist Zakk Wylde. It is not as grim as the title suggests but fishing in the doomiest waters of the band’s album history. Serves typical Zakk-style guitars shooting one ultra-catchy riff and lead after another. It’s the immanent blues that makes me swing to the slow groove of ‘Grimmest Hits’. Recalls BLS’ grand debut full-length, ‘Sonic Brew’, released in 1999.” (SM)
SABEL
“Re-Generation”
Oak Island Records
“Imagine Sleep’s ‘Jerusalem’ stirred well with Electric Wizard’s ‘Dopethrone’ and Atomic Rooster style blues and hard rock – or Monolord dancing with Kadavar – to get an idea about SABEL’s amazing debut album called ‘Re-Generation’. Serves raw, Sabbathian doom and driving, hips shaking proto-stoner with maximum fuzz on the howling guitars as well as reverberating, weed tanned vocals. Swedish quality!” (SM)
LEECHFEAST
“Neon Crosses”
Dry Cough Records / Rope Or Guillotine
“Slovenia’s LEECHFEAST pull Grief-style sludge through hot, cancerous tarmac on ‘Neon Crosses’, which is their most misanthropic and sonically devastating release so far – painfully slow and ultra-heavy at the same time!” (SM)
BURN RITUAL
“Blood Of The Raven”
Cursed Monk Records
“San Antonio based BURN RITUAL celebrate heavy rolling old school doom metal on their debut full-length, ‘Blood of the Raven'” (SM)
SOLDAT HANS
“Es taut”
Wolves And Vibrancy Records
“SOLDAT HANS (German for: Soldier called Hans) from Switzerland combine utterly dark, amazingly catchy Bohren & Der Club Of Gore style jazz – including trombones, melotron and violins – with pointed postrock guitars, bluesy slides and towering sludge riffage that goes along the stoically crawling tempo just like the hauntingly beautiful and desperately screamed vocals. ‘Es taut’ (It melts) is a didactic play in the matter of Jazz Doom Metal!” (SM)
CULLED
“Thin The Herd, Fail To Learn”
Hibernation Release
“Canadian CULLED released their blistering debut titled ‘Thin The Herd, Fail To Learn’. Serves 5 ripping and politically charged anthems, 25 minutes of chaotic, progressive, and sludge encrusted grindcore mayhem. Like Napalm Death meets Crowbar – highly destructive!” (SM)
MIRROR OF DECEPTION
“The Estuary”
Self-release
“Eight years after predecessor ‘A Smouldering Fire’, MIRROR OF DECEPTION are having their brand new studio album out. ‘The Estuary’ continues the band’s own vision of doom metal leaving genre rules, traditions and recitations, sometimes going unorthodox ways as they have been doing for 28 years of existence.”
GODSLEEP
“Coming Of Age”
Self-release
“Athens based stoner band GODSLEEP released second album, ‘Coming Of Age’, which is a well crafted, blues infested fuzz monster for quality addicts and riff surfers. Reminiscent of Kyuss and Monster Magnet – well stirred and shot straight from the hip into the audiophile neocortex!” (SM)
