I first heard this Finnish lot back around 2005 when they were still called The Coven but for reasons of life and stuff unrelated it’s been a good ten years or so since I last dropped in on them. I don’t listen to much true doom these days, sadly, mostly because the bits that have come my way have varied between just OK and dull. With a couple of exceptions. Add in bands like Nine Altars or the mighty Thronehammer (spot the connection?) who mix it with proto death stylings and are frankly superb, I drifted.

So kind of nice to stop by with this.

Opening instrumental ‘Life Eternal’ is a classic doom riff; slow, heavy ponderous and nicely raw edged with subtle keyboards just in the background. A mournful guitar line and that’s your lot. So ‘Ride Or Die 666’ kind of sideswipes you like a juggernaut braking the speed limit. Mid to fast paced but with what I would call classic doom vocals; clean powerful, slightly heavy on the echo. It’s a cool bit of chunky heavy metal, kind of Angel Witch picking up speed. Which begs the question is it doom? Well doom isn’t simply about speed or lack of it; there’s atmosphere, lyrical concerns and simply attitude. So though mostly fast this has the thick, horror soaked feel of doooooom. Plus it’s a cool song.

‘Luciferian’ with an epic feel to the melody despite being slower feels very much like a straight forward heavy metal song to me, kind of the style that Arkham Witch pedal so well.  It has a thick NWOBHM feel when the guitar break comes; classic, head nodding stuff. ‘Priesthood Of Darkness’ though once more has the dark hand of doom wrapped around your throat in moments; raw but perfectly balanced sound, soulful vocals. At lower keys and quieter moments it must be said that the vocals waver more than a little but somehow it kind of adds to the raw spirit that these veterans retain.

Lyrical concerns as you may have gathered are pretty much in the old school, Rev Biz Satan and darkness and Lovecraft bailiwick. ‘Innsmouth Royalty’ has a galloping gait, a little tinge of punk to the riff curiously but it works well indeed. The title song and ‘Ludovico’ both stick to the slightly more speedy sound, both good little slices of metal.

The closer ‘Last Bastion Of Doom’ is lyrically intriguing for me being a clear statement of their stance. ‘sometimes speed is the ace of war…’ they state as the song accelerates out of the gates. ‘before us the black plague must end…’. Save the best to last indeed.

‘One of the last redoubts, extreme sovereign and cruel. One of the ultimate bastions, blues for Satan as their tune.’ they state and maybe in the end it’s the thick vein of blues in the roots of them that retains the true feel of doom.

Some may find the vocals a little wayward, the production basic but for me this is all to the good. This is raw, unrefined doom after nearly twenty years of life in the shadows (counting The Coven) and its adherence to the soul of the genre is exemplary. Add in it’s a fine album then you really should give it a good look people.

Doom or be doomed…

(7.5/10 Gizmo)

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https://soulsellerrecords.bandcamp.com/album/live-by-the-sword