I’ve been reviewing things for this and other websites for around twenty years now, and for much if not all of that time, I’ve been doing that alongside our esteemed editor. One of the ways in which this relationship shows its multiple benefits is just how well he knows what kind of music is likely to hit the spot for me. So, when the editor said unto me, “give this a go, think it might be right up your street”, my interest was peaked.

Oh boy, was he right.

Roots of the Old Oak are a three piece from our very own blighty, and “The Devil and His Wicked Ways”, whilst not being an overt concept album does delve heavily into the background of Paganism in the UK and resistance to the onset of Christianity. All of this may be of interest to you, but I suspect you’d rather read about what they sound like. Well, while not being a carbon copy in any way, the two bands that kept coming to mind when I listened to the album were one of my absolute favourites, the Swedish Occult doom/deathsters in Runemagick, as well as the slower, darker moments of Kings of Asgard.

We’re in deepest, darkest death/doom territory here folks, with a fairly hefty emphasis on the slower, more oppressive sounds backed up by guitar and bass sounds so gnarly that they make early Entombed sound like fifties surf rock. “I Defy Thee” sets the scene, with a low, gravelly quality that produces dread, but it’s really on third track “Forestdweller” that the trio of Mike Rowland (Bass), Stuart Brogan (Drums and Vocals) and Pete Rowland (Guitars and Vocals) really get into their stride. This is a doom track that produces the fear, and then in spades. All of this would be nothing without an atmosphere, and in almost the exact opposite of musical-atmosphere producer Russ Abbott, I suspect that Roots of the Old Oak hate a “party with a happy atmosphere”. This is an album that’s about having a fireside glower with a frown on your face, and it’s all the better for it.

They’ve got the musical confidence to put in a short instrumental interlude around halfway through the album with “A ballad of two ravens”, before coming back in with the title track of the song, where we get perhaps the purest expression of the collection. Not unlike the unholy bastard child of Runemagik and My Dying Bride, this is an exercise in absolutely top drawer bleak death-doomery. The string bends on the main riff, combined with the tortured croaking vocals are incredibly dismal. Elsewhere, “Allfather (A Wanderers Tale)” manages, if anything, to bring the energy level down. This is resistance to positive energy; a cosmic middle finger to fun. Frankly, the doom metal on display on this track has elements of Gothic era Paradise Lost, but with any semblance of positivity wrung out by the neck.

If you like your metal to be slow, utterly and irredeemably miserable and heavier than being crushed under many tonnes of self-help books, then this is the album for you. For my part, I absolutely loved the atmosphere, and the unrepentant way in which the band decided to play on their own terms – I suspect they would be pleased if you got it, but probably wouldn’t care too much if you didn’t. Confident, baroque, oppressive and thoroughly enjoyable.

Here’s to another twenty years.

(9/10 Chris Davison)

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https://hammerheart.bandcamp.com/album/the-devil-and-his-wicked-ways