Musical trends are often cyclical in nature. What is the ‘in’ sound at one time may fall out of favour faster than you can find a comfortable pair of flares, but it inevitably returns to favour somewhere down the line. Recently the classic doom and occult rock sounds of the 60’s and 70’s made a fashionable comeback just as thrash was falling out of favour for the second time, but there is a new old scene making a comeback and it’s been making a musical statement in keeping with the sounds of defiance that it represents. 2013 has been the year that traditional heavy metal has made a serious and triumphant resurgence. Now you are most likely thinking, ‘hang on there a minute Lee, it never really went away’, but actually if you think about the bands that have valiantly flown the flag for traditional metal over the past couple of decades, they have either been experimenting to try and stay relevant, getting stale and boring, and sometimes both. Bands like Iron Maiden and Judas Priest rode off on the crest of an ego as they got older, dabbling in prog rock and concept albums and managing to discard all the energy and attitude that made them legends in the first place. This year though there has been the excellent album from Twilight of the Gods, and now one of my most eagerly anticipated releases of the year. This is one of those albums that takes me back to a better time and place.
Formed by Jochen Müller and Andreas Taller (known here simply as J. and A.) of German doomsters Mirror of Deception back in 2009, Mountain Throne have gained a cult following through live performances at doom festivals and a couple of seriously limited vinyl releases including a split 7” with the mighty Procession a couple of years ago. ‘Stormcoven’ marks not only their first full length album, but also the first chance to own anything by them on CD, which for me is a blessed relief as I do not go in for all this ‘vinyl only’ nonsense. Despite the obvious doom leanings of the band and the company they keep, the order of the day is Ancient Heavy Metal by their own description, and there is no question that their style is in keeping with a certain vintage. As the first few notes of ‘Spirits of Fate’ play in, the expectation is clearly in keeping with a melancholic doom sound, yet as the first guitar riff kicks in we enter full classic metal mode. The pace is not what you would call blistering, but it maintains a steady and solid pace and it is a combination of F.’s powerful vocals and the rhythm section that powers a fist pumping metal monster. The title track in particular is an utter beast which absolutely captures the spirit of metal in just under 5 minutes of perfectly executed brilliance. In many ways it is the simplicity of the music that makes it so engaging. There is no pretence and no delusions of grandeur, just stripped down classic metal.
One of the things that makes ‘Stormcoven’ such an engaging album is the sheer number of influences that you can hear within, and yet with none being so overbearing that the music becomes anything less than entirely original and engaging. The sounds of Venom mix with Candlemass, Manilla Road and even New Model Army on one track, yet ultimately their sound is somehow both classically familiar and unique at the same time. The one thing that is absolutely indisputable is that this rocks and rocks hard! I have had this album on very heavy rotation for the past few weeks and over that time I have managed to identify a few little things that I would normally pick up on. The vocals sound a bit shaky on occasion, the production is less than perfect, but I’ve also decided that I simply don’t care about any of that. It’s trivial nit-picking when I consider the joy that this album gives me. This is heavy metal the way it is supposed to be played, pure and simple, and I for one absolutely love it.
(9/10 Lee Kimber)
www.facebook.com/mountainthrone
Leave a Reply