DOOM METAL and SLUDGE METAL exist on indefinite terms as generational relatives among the most ancient forms of extreme heavy metal. Great emotion pours from these fonts of slow, heavy, and existentially unsatisfied belts of yearning. Grief and catharsis, frustration and humility, a diabolical unrest within the ‘soul’ manifests among the addict, the depressive, and the anxietous heap as they channel outward to heal (or hurt deeper) into the future. With open arms I worship and celebrate those who tune low and hang their (earnest) sorrows lower as doom spreads thick over our absurd planet. These will be mini-reviews of varying focus, all things are considered seriously. If thoughts appear cursory, it is likely meant to match the effort of the piece in question. I have a policy of covering 99% of everything I receive in some form, be it mini-review, review, or full-feature so don’t hesitate to send anything and everything my way. Thank you.

Here I present to you eight months of consideration for an always-changing stream of 40 releases, which have accumulated as some of the most satisfying and/or admirable doom metal and sludge metal & related sub-genre releases from 2019 thus far. Only releases that have received no coverage on Grizzly Butts (as of mid-August 2019) are included so, if you’d like the ‘best of doom’ so far… Kindly go and read the other 509,000+ words I’ve written so far this year and pick out the doom releases as you find them; Or just search ‘doom metal’, whatever. I want more doom and sludge so if you are in a band, represent a band, or just passionately love an album that I’ve missed don’t hesitate to e-mail (grizzlybutts@hotmail.com) or leave a comment below. The list is loosely chronological beginning in February and ending with an early September release.

Hey! Don’t dive in thinking this will all be shit just because I am not doing full reviews for these releases! I always have some quality control in mind and look for expressive, meaningful, or just damn heavy releases that hold value without gimmickry or bland plagiarism. Thank you! I am eternally grateful for the support of readers and appreciate the friendly and positive interactions I’ve had with all thus far. Think my opinions are trash and that I suck? Want to totally tell me off, bro? Click away and let’s all live more sensible lives full of meaningful interactions. I’m too old and bored with people to care.

Artist	Il Vuoto
Title [Type/Year]	Vastness [Full-length/2019]
Rating [3.5/5.0]	BUY & LISTEN on Bandcamp!

Melodramatic and often downright gothic in its awkwardly sun ‘clean’ vocal moments there is a truly appropriate amateurish aspect to Piacenza, Italy solo funeral doom metal project Il Vuoto. Before you begin to consider that a passive-aggressive dig, allow me to suggest that this sort of solemn and very alone spirit is the basis for the extreme doom sub-genre as it manifests as funeral doom metal. Yes, the bulk of vastness a modest production with all aspects of instrumentation, songwriting and recording handled by Matteo Gruppi. If the sad ache of the vocals isn’t to your liking I’d suggest that the history of melodic death/doom and early funeral doom is so rooted in this sort of performance that you may have just excused yourself from a vast array of underground classics but, I’m not here to gatekeep. The vocals are overdone and wholly in the realm of gothic metal croaking from the mid-90’s but they’re appropriately evocative of what drives ‘Vastness’: Sorrow. All forms of sorrow are examined, felt, and expunged across the span of this raw but carefully adventurous hour. Dark metal lead guitar melodies, melodic death/doom aggression, atmospheric gothic metal, and deeply growled movements accumulate into a funeral doom metal whole that isn’t made up of entirely obvious parts. There are rock solos, post-rock meanderings, and all manner of very subtle influences that provide character for this beautifully sad piece of music. If it were any more lush or professional I think it’d risk sounding less genuine, solitary and distraught.

Artist	Zad
Title [Type/Year]	Followers of Tann [Full-length/2019]
Rating [3.75.0/5.0]	BUY & LISTEN on Bandcamp!

This Tel Aviv, Israel based quartet are somewhat unassuming in paper. Reading the black/doom metal tags and seeing the beautiful line drawing from Misanthropic-Art pointed my mind towards the sort of typical black metal you’d hear from Israel today, usually taking cues more from Scandinavia than anywhere else. Zad are something else, though, and this debut ‘Followers of Tann’ is incredibly inspired and unique among the sort of black/doom hybridization I’ve come across of late. To say they are a blackened doom metal band would be mostly accurate in the sense that Zad splits their time equally between bounding, intricate modern doom metal riffs and violent bursts of black metal. It is a true crossover in that sense where the haunting spirits of doom and black metal coalesce beautifully. This band might be basically fresh out of the box and new as of 2016 but man have they set a high bar for themselves with this release. Drummer T. (Sonne Adam, ex-Kever) also runs Blood Red Goat Studio and does a fine job of mixing the record but the main point of interest here is the fine mixture of ‘modern’ sounding black metal with doom metal that can range from riffs you’d hear on a Green Druid album up towards the heavier later Runemagick era and all of it flows together incredibly well. If you’re a doom metal fan and never felt like black/doom metal really understood doom metal structures then I’d say you’re probably going to appreciate what Zad have done with this debut.

Artist	Ataraxie
Title [Type/Year]	Résignés [Full-length/2019]
Rating [3.5/5.0]	BUY & LISTEN on Bandcamp!

French funeral death/doom metal band Ataraxie return after a six year hiatus with two guitarists replacing one of their original members (Sylvain Estève) who’d left and eventually joined death band band Stabwound, who appear to be working on a full-length after many years. Since 2014 a grand reconfiguration of Ataraxie has served as a worthy rethinking of their approach both in studio and as a set of performers. Roughly 80 minutes and four years of thought, sweat and sorrow eek from ‘Résignés’ as the band makes a ‘comeback’ without pulling a ‘return to our roots’ kind of move that would have been expected. I’m glad we’ve gotten a new version of Ataraxie after the long hiatus and this allows the wake from their slumber to be all the more impressive. Reviewing a funeral doom metal album is often a debilitating affair, I suppose unless you don’t take it seriously or try to feel the intentions and emotive value of the experience. So, I slacked on talking about this album for quite a long time despite enjoying it. The length isn’t so bothersome but rather that the full listen requires 20-25 minutes focus per song and this proved difficult to manage unless I had a full free hour and a half to devote to meditation upon the album. Why rant on about that and not the music? I don’t think you’ll hear anything drastically new on ‘Résignés’ though it is a strong movement for the band’s discography there aren’t any great points of release or poignancy that consumed me or had me wanting to spin it repeatedly. Closer listening and some consideration for the variation on display could make this one of your favorite death metal influenced funeral doom metal albums of the year but for my own taste it was just above par as a listening experience. Some light black metal movements highlight each track though the death/doom elements are probably the strongest for the band since their earlier material and I think for the dedicated funeral death/doom metal fan this is likely an essential ‘get’ this year. Otherwise, I did not always feel the song lengths were justified in terms of ideas and the effect was only mildly repeatable without deeper loss of sanity on my part.

Artist	Sâver
Title [Type/Year]	They Came With Sunlight [Full-length/2019]
Rating [3.5/5.0]	BUY & LISTEN on Bandcamp!

Norwegian sludge/doom metal has an intense and often brutally heavy stable of bands that’ve phased in and out of activity since the dawn of this millennium and few had nailed the overblown Sleep-meets-Electric Wizard slide as well as Tombstones did on their first couple of albums. Side projects among members began to crop up as time went on and they’d call it quits in 2017, mutually agreeing they’d go along different paths. At this point we’d gotten one of my personal favorite records of 2017, Hymn‘s incredibly brutal ‘Perish‘, and now we see an equally new side of the ex-Tombstones fellowes with this atmospheric sludge/doom metal debut from Sâver. It would be trite to simply say that this album sounds like Neurosis because that is really just one layer of their sound and by the second song you’re far beyond that realm and should be looking to the bass heavy tones of Light Bearer or the raucous heft of Rwake‘s bigger albums for Relapse. It bears noting that Sâver lean boldly into post-metal without sounding typical or relying on bland post-rock guitar techniques to express their atmospheric sense. “Dissolve to Ashes” should be a huge surprise, I know it completely caught me off guard the first time I heard it. There is dread and heretical stomping doom in the blood of this record and I only wish I’d taken more time with it in March rather than slowly get around to giving a more serious examination today. So, for what its worth this is a fantastic debut and something a bit unique for the Pelagic Records roster in terms of heaviness and that tribally bounding classic atmospheric sludge metal feeling.

Artist	Slush
Title [Type/Year]	Lizard Skin [Full-length/2019]
Rating [3.75/5.0]	BUY & LISTEN on Bandcamp!

How could I possibly bring myself to care about a band that doesn’t give too healthy of a shit if I give a shit? Easily, I mean look at Slush. I dunno how hard they give a damn and that is part of the damned allure of ‘Lizard Skin’, this extensive double LP from the New York punk, doom, and howlin’ hard blues band that might throw you off with the ’75 kinda NY punk-blues boogie of “Graveyard” as it introduces the record. We’ve got doom around the edges, ‘western’ folk music along the way, and big hairy riffs fuzzing up that too cool for school high Slush push out all easy like. Have I heard an easier groove from a garage doom/rock band since Pentagram released those crispy old demo compilations? Probably, but I dunno if even they’d had thier bluesy droop down this low. This won’t be for the doom purist or the savagely depressed metalhead unless the idea of lo-fi blues-driven doom and soulfully dire North American rock history is up your alley too. Think like, Saint Vitus‘ ‘Hallow’s Victim’ if interpreted by a Hawkwind obsessed garage rock band. I was hooked on this album from the first spin thanks to “Golden Seam” and “Skeleton Queen” but if you’re gonna try this one out make sure you listen to “On the Silver Globe” before you quit.

Artist	Forlet Sires
Title [Type/Year]	Holy [Full-length/2019]
Rating [4.0/5.0]	BUY & LISTEN on Bandcamp!

Here we are treated with what is likely the first modern and ‘forward-thinking’ release of this feature in the form of Forlet Sires‘ second full-length album. ‘Holy’ represents a glorious leap ahead from this young quartet out of Zurich, Switzerland who are at thier most engaging within these well considered post-rock influenced atmospheric black metal pieces that are melded with a modern form of doom/sludge. This is the sort of atmoblack fusion that you’d typically find on a label like Gilead Media where a deeper understanding of cinematic values is appreciated. If you’re not a fan of atmospheric black metal but enjoy the style of groups like Mizmor and Yith I think you might be won over by ‘Holy’ despite its very clear sway towards modern post-black. It is nonetheless a modern doom metal album in a somewhat vague sense and probably won’t please pure doom metal fans as much as it’ll appeal to fans of dark metal/melodic death/doom phrasing as well as atmospheric black metal guitar techniques. As the record progresses it toys with dissonance, mild tinges of psychedelia, and some guitar work that I’d probably classify as progressive sludge metal if you twisted my arm. Each of the four songs here is a vital piece of the full story and it is dense enough that I would recommend several full listens before making a decision on ‘Holy’.

Artist	Clouds Taste Satanic
Title [Type/Year]	Evil Eye [Full-length/2019]
Rating [3.25/5.0]	BUY & LISTEN on Bandcamp!

Offering up the first “man, I’m not high enough for this shit.” of the year we are gifted with two songs spanning forty minutes of evil instrumental doom metal jams by way of New York City’s Clouds Taste Satanic. These extended ‘off the cuff’ feeling grooves hearken back to the ‘To Sleep Beyond the Earth’ (2014) era of the band before they’d begun to experiment with shorter (4-7 minute) tracks. That modus had already shifted back to the good ole’ few years prior with ‘The Glitter of Infinite Hell’ (2017) but no doubt those 85 minutes were -a lot- to take in whereas this ‘Evil Eye’ feels like the right entry point for new fans of this style of doom metal. The vibe appears like a riff on what Pelican or Russian Circles but with fuzzed out stoner/doom metal (Bongripper, Goblinsmoker) as the medium where extensive movements create an easy groan of existential dread under the watchful eye of Satan. The sides are divided into about four movements each and 20 minutes for each side; Side A focuses on entry-level dark magic and Side B focuses on a deeper, more pure set of conjurer caste. I’m not huge on instrumental music these last few years but I won’t deny Clouds Taste Satanic have been steadily consistent in creation of easy grooves and pure doom metal tinged stoner jams year over year. Huge lean towards Side B on my end, see which you like best.

Artist	Celophys
Title [Type/Year]	Fried Chordata [Full-length/2019]
Rating [3.25/5.0]	BUY & LISTEN on Bandcamp!

Cherkasy, Ukraine based sludge metal duo Celophys might’ve split up recently but that is no reason to overlook their fourth sludge/doom metal full-length since forming in 2012. It looks as if the members had a falling out and now drummer/vocalist Alexandr Beregovoy is focusing solely on his solo black/death project Vubar. If you’re not familiar with the group they’ve tuned themselves as low and fuzzed as early Conan and their tone and stylistic range would’ve been a good fit for a label like Black Bow Records who tend to focus on big, burly fuzz-shocked sludge/doom metal that veers towards the early (but not 1995 early) Electric Wizard spectrum. Big hits of thunderous doom, punkish hits, and some earthshaking harshness pushes throughout ‘Fried Chordata’. Think of their style as if Grief had formed after ‘Dopethrone’ was released. If you’re not sure this is your thing, at least give “Papáver” a spin and see what sticks.

Artist	Haze Mage
Title [Type/Year]	Chronicles [Full-length/2019]
Rating [4.0/5.0]	BUY & LISTEN on Bandcamp!

I’m pretty much down with anything Maryland based label Grimoire Records puts out due to their particularly fine curation process, involving generally recording, mixing, mastering each band released. I’ve said this before and I don’t kiss ass but their high standards and versatility in handling a variety of genres is worthy as all hell. Haze Mage is one of the more anticipated releases from the label this year thanks to their ‘Blood Mist’ (2017) EP and hey, the ‘sword and sorcery doom’ tag couldn’t be more fitting. You’re going to get those 80’s rollicking fantasy metal vibes with a vocalist who lands somewhere between early-to-mid 90’s Danzig and Reverend Bizarre‘s more upbeat side (er, Slough Feg?) — But they’re having a bit more fun than that, even, with some serious nerd metal cum stoner metal/wizard doom crossover in the mix. If you remember stuff like The Lamp of Thoth but wished the songwriting was as strong as Pentagram‘s ‘Last Rites’ about a decade back, this is probably going to be the right load for your bowl. Fire up “Bong Witch” and try keep that jam out of your head, great stuff.

Artist	Druids
Title [Type/Year]	Monument [Full-length/2019]
Rating [3.5/5.0]	BUY & LISTEN on Bandcamp!

Iowa’s Druids are a progressive sludge metal influenced stoner/doom metal band that’ve evolved as such between three full-lengths without ever sounding too derivative or ‘obvious’ in influence. The main vibe you’ll pick up on is some appreciation for early Baroness (or more recent Lord Dying) but I’d also throw in the modern post-metal feeling of Vancouver sludgers Empress as well. At sub-30 minute length ‘Monument’ is an easy, quick listen that has some reasonable density to its spin. I wouldn’t say the middling 9 minute monolith of “Mirrors of Trigon” is a complete success but the songs that surround its spire are generally enough to keep me listening. The real draw here is the lead guitars and their dual-wielded melodic runs that have a soaring and unintentionally 80’s aspect to them. Druids is still a band ‘to watch’ and not yet a fully essential recommendation but it is worth noting that they’ve reached a strong professional peak with ‘Monument’.

Artist	Ancient Altar
Title [Type/Year]	Cosmic Purge/Foie Gras [Single/2019]
Rating [3.5/5.0]	BUY & LISTEN on Bandcamp!

This Los Angeles, California sludge/doom metal band were just on the tip of notable as they released their second full-length, ‘Dead Earth’ in 2015 but it’d seem the original line-up wasn’t in agreement on how to continue leading up to the exit of their second guitarist and drummer. Revived since as a trio one could argue that the splitting of their atomic being lead to more savory results but not in the sense you’d expect. This two song, 25 minute single rediscovers Ancient Altar‘s morose sludge darkness and lifts a greater wave of epic doom metal spiritus along the way. Not because of the line-up changes but I suppose because of the turmoil that’d lead to the split. “Foie Gras” feel especially tormented, existential but lost in its own sweetly roaring dirge. “Cosmic Purge” has that distant early Yob-esque feel that the band had always leaned towards. I’m curious to see what the band accomplishes as a trio because this last gasp of the original line-up is some kind of doom metal magick in my ears. The harsh vocal parts are paced and spaced beautifully in the full listen where they have true impact and aren’t always predictable as a woeful presence. One of many Los Angeles based sludge/doom bands to watch in recent memory.

Artist	EndName
Title [Type/Year]	EVA [Full-length/2019]
Rating [3.0/5.0]	BUY & LISTEN on Bandcamp!

Your senses are failing you, your taste is soured by the last bite of shit society feeds you, and the only way forward in this world of doom is up… In Russian space?! Yes, consider this heavy progressive doom metal band whom’d incorporate sci-fi synths and heavy doses of exploratory prog-sludge along the way. It feels as if Klaus Schulze were composing for a Russian stoner music collective and most all of ‘EVA’ is big musical personality that feels slightly wasted with cinematic movements. EndName hail from Moscow as a duo and this is their fifth full-length since forming in 2007. What could I possibly compare this to? Maybe Koloss on some level, or Dying Sun if they were focused on outer space rather than self-interment. I won’t oversell the experience here as I think the guitar work lacks on a few of the pieces here and they haven’t grown drastically since their second album but I would classify this as a unique sound for my own ears, largely due to the synth heavy portions of the full listen. By the time you’re halfway through “Pegas” you’ll be scratching your head but hopefully enjoying that EndName at least deliver upon ‘unique’ post-doom attributes and a sci-fi appropriate experience. Ultimately I’d like more songs and less atmospheric wandering so adjust your own thoughts and score accordingly.

Artist	Conjurer
Title [Type/Year]	Sigils [Full-length/2019]
Rating [3.25/5.0]	BUY & LISTEN on Bandcamp!

The stink of the 90’s sludge metal uptick has a hundred tendrils of the mouths of Conjurer and though they’re on the gruff side of things most often their second full-length ‘Sigils’ isn’t just more, more, more piled on top of their ways but a greater focus on the mood they convey. Folks have done their fair share of comparing this band to Crowbar and a few other NOLA sludge bands but that ain’t the spirit of this, at all really. I always feel like folks who review sludge all day long online can rarely trace any sound further back than 2001 anymore. If you’re gonna think modern day, consider the head-kicking darkness of Sixes or Hauta and then apply a heavy vocal front that just kinda bear-pukes out a la Dreksau‘s ‘Schmerz‘. If nothing else this is the kind of sludge metal hulk we’ve been getting from Germany for a few decades and what Conjurer apply is their own melodic sense with a hint of love for the radio rock-singed fringes of sludge metal pre-1998, and a healthy occult doom metal feeling. You’ve likely heard these patterns and sounds reshaped a hundred times, though, and it’ll just be a matter of how much you like shouty sludge performance values sidled up against mid-to-slow paced doom metal. I liked it and spent a few days with ‘Sigils’ before I’d felt it was quickly exhausted of nuance and staying power in my regular playlist.

Artist	Cultic
Title [Type/Year]	High Command [Full-length/2019]
Rating [3.75/5.0]	BUY & LISTEN on Bandcamp!

York, Pennsylvania trio Cultic arrive with the words already halfway out of their mouths “…fluenced by Winter, Hellhammer, and Cianide” and I’m a hundred percent there on all three counts. The directness of “These are our influences, it should be obvious.” and when give a chance what they can do with those bones ‘High Command’ shines as a raw fantasy epic that never leaves its garage-shaking thunderous ways for a second. For all of the ‘primitive’ death metal kicking around on the West coast they often leave behind the punkish, lumbering spirit of Celtic Frost for the sake of traditional USDM ideologies beyond 1989 and this is where Cultic have an edge over many. The riffs couldn’t be any more referential nor could they have been treated in a more tank-like fashion with the clanking bass guitar tone and distant war-like drums. They call themselves “black/death battle punk” and hey, I’d agree if you threw in high fantasy warlords at the end.

Artist	Red Moon Architect
Title [Type/Year]	Kuura [Full-length/2019]
Rating [3.25/5.0]	LISTEN on Spotify!

Ethereal Finnish funeral doom metal from musicians who also moonlight in Aeonian Sorrow is a nice enough proposition and to be sure you’ve missed out on ‘Return of the Black Butterflies (2017) if you are inclined towards the more melodically inspired funeral doom spectrum. The follow-up ‘Kuura’ is experimental in some ways but ultimately a fruitful adventure into deeper atmospheric subtlety as well as some very surprising influences from atmospheric black metal that do not escape the realm of funeral doom. It is a bold but not wholly unpredictable change in vocal approach but it provides a vessel for what is certainly a great and ongoing sadness. Red Moon Architect‘s discography has a certain senectitude to it, something dryly old and grey from within that is painful to the touch and yet they fit in very well with their countrymen in Shades of Despair, early Swallow the Sun, and occasionally a touch of Rapture (surely less this time around). I would consider this album keyboard driven in a way that only funeral doom metal can be, where that atmospheric constant is a better vehicle for movement than the relatively shapeless accompaniment on rhythm guitar. Your enjoyment of this record is going to depend on your love of the ‘black metal’ vocals that are employed here, which do vary but have a breathy rasping bit of suffocation to them no matter what. “I” or “Part I” is the highlight here for me because it is -such- an introduction but as a whole there wasn’t much unique about ‘Kuura’ beyond its thick atmospheric values and unexpected vocal style.

Artist	Gloson
Title [Type/Year]	Mara [EP/2019]
Rating [3.5/5.0]	BUY & LISTEN on Bandcamp!

Halmstad, Sweden based atmospheric sludge metal band Gloson are often compared to early Cult of Luna I’d say probably because they are Swedish and sound somewhat like Neurosis in some respects but I’d veer somewhere else for comparison; Maybe closer to the most aggressive moments from The Moth Gatherer. Their debut full-length ‘Grimen’ (2017) was stunning but not always shockingly original at a glance — Two years beyond that point we receive ‘Mara’, a two song EP, as consolation for the long wait following their debut. These two tracks are a success in terms of reintroducing listeners to the band and finding deeper musical statements within less repetitive incorporation of post-metal influences. For a band that has been about the ‘riff’ in the past “Usurper” is an appropriate starting point but the prevalence of spoken word sections in the final moments of each song moves in a direction I don’t particularly enjoy.

Artist	Pagan Altar
Title [Type/Year]	Discography [Full-length(s)/2019]
Rating [5.0/5.0]	BUY from Temple of Mystery!

This is more of a fanboy Public Service Announcement rather than an actual review because I felt it’d be impossible to review just one of Pagan Altar‘s albums and not all of them equally and it became too large of an undertaking. Instead I will say that Temple of Mystery are doing the world a glorious favor by reissuing all of Pagan Altar‘s official releases including their four full-lengths: ‘Volume 1’, ‘Lords of Hypocrisy’, ‘Judgement of the Dead’ and probably my favorite ‘Mythical & Magical’ alongside ‘The Time Lord’ EP as well. These releases are famously chronologically out of order and almost all written between 1977 and 1983 but once you’ve got them lined up in a meaningful run it becomes clear this was a band as inspired and gloriously underground as Pentagram were back in the day. All of it is essential listening and especially for ‘classic’ doom metal and NWOBHM-adjacent heavy music collectors/fandom so, don’t hesitate to grab these fast. I was impressed with the quality of ToM‘s treatment of Pagan Altar‘s post-humous release, ‘The Room of Shadows’, after Terry Jones had passed a few years previous so, I’m looking forward to at least having these other releases in print and in my collection.

Artist	Witch Ritual
Title [Type/Year]	Death: Beyond [Full-length/2019]
Rating [3.5/5.0]	BUY & LISTEN on Bandcamp!

The unassuming artwork and general ‘occult doom metal’ tag offer no guarantee in the world of independent doom metal but the Berlin school of cosmic dread and stoned ambition is almost always a sure thing. Likewise, if you can name a metal band with “Witch” in their name that isn’t good, you’re probably trying too hard. Witch Ritual offer a palatable take on occult doom with a heavy stoner/doom affect when it comes to riffs and the walking pace of ‘Death: Beyond’. At the very least they’ve delivered upon the promise of ‘Rising Doom’ (2016), an EP that saw the band gain high praise among the longer standing stoner/doom blogsphere of today. The gripes are few and far between here– I think the opener (“Black Magic Rites”) and the big jam of “Behind Me” are too similar in structure but man do they hit the spot if you’re looking for forlorn spirits and mid-paced ‘occult’ rock tinged doom metal. Vocalist Lacri isn’t breaking the mold with her performance but you can feel the intention of her performance and it works as a narrative voice as well as a haunting presence. If you loved that Urza album I reviewed a few months back and want to support related projects, this band shares a guitarist (Marcus) and some interest in doom should crossover easily.

Artist	Hex A.D.
Title [Type/Year]	Wicked Serpents [EP/2019]
Rating [4.0/5.0]	LISTEN on Spotify

Don’t know Hex A.D. yet? Are you a fan of Cathedral? If you are, you need to buy this fine Norwegian prog-stoner doom/heavy rock band’s whole discography right away. ‘Wicked Serpents’ is actually a digital EP that features two re-recording songs from the bands earliest days when Rick Hagan was essentially a one man band collaborating with legendary rock/metal producer Chris Tsangarides. These versions are a little more intense and most noticeably feature organist Mags Johnson. They’ve more or less released this to both pay homage to their beginnings and to point folks towards the digital release of their first album ‘Even the Savage Will See Fair Play’ (2014). This is the best introduction to the band possible and I’d say there are so few bands that come anywhere close to this powerful of a sound anymore, so grab all Hex A.D. stuff up wherever available, if nothing else check out ‘Netherworld Triumphant’ from 2018 and get up to speed as they work on a new release, they’ll be a huge name soon enough.

Artist	Heathe
Title [Type/Year]	On the Tombstones; The Symbols Engraved [Full-length/2019]
Rating [3.75/5.0]	BUY & LISTEN on Bandcamp!

Shouting in horror within a freshly sealed tomb, running out of air that your anxietous gasps steal by the minute, it slowly dawns upon you that you will never move the stone aside and see freedom again. This ancient hole of toxic dust and preserved bones, a trap to die within. There your final thoughts are all of the breath left in your body as feebly scouring your mind for an action of purpose lands empty, a body for the worms and beetles below. Danish atmospheric blackened doom act Heathe is heirophant to divine the private purpose of those who die alone, scouring their final thoughts for what useful meaning there might lay in the dirt upon defeat. At least I imagine this as I listen, the dread and the horror encased in a howling cave that reeks of tormented souls and frightened deaths. ‘On the Tombstones; The Symbols Engraved’ is a complete and relentless bout of terror until the ~20 minute mark when expectations are subverted and the landscape begins to shift dramatically. If you loved Waste of Space Orchestra this year, or you are a Dark Buddha Rising fan, I would say you really need to consider trying this as well for its experimental movements and the similar ‘collective’ approach to its performance between 8-9 musicians. Worthwhile just for its tormented vibe and progression, unique for a blackened sludge/doom band and I enjoyed their toying with harsh noise which feels very ‘now’ in terms of what underground sludge has been perfecting these last handful of years.

Artist	Dreadnought
Title [Type/Year]	Emergence [Full-length/2019]
Rating [3.0/5.0]	BUY & LISTEN on Bandcamp!

When I received this latest Dreadnought record (alongside a death metal band of the same name) I knew the name was familiar but there was no reason to think this was the same band that put out ‘Bridging Realms’ back in 2015. They’ve completely transformed into a modernist dark metal-tinged progressive metal/rock band. Prog-Chelsea Wolfe? post-blackened The Flight of Sleipnir (who were post-something to begin with)? Does it get as weird as Björk + The Dirty Projectors? No, but I think this band is on the verge of breaking free of riff-based post-whatever constructs and ready to move beyond any semblance of doom completely as I listen to ‘Emergence’. Does it work for me as a casual listener? No, not at all. I don’t enjoy a moment of it in terms of my own taste but I do appreciate both how Dreadnought have evolved and the comfort at which they fit within their own skin, ‘Emergence’ is luminescent and sourly dejected at once. It might seem daunting for the lengthy songs but this is quite an easy listen in terms of flow.

Artist	Atala
Title [Type/Year]	Bearer of Light [Full-length/2019]
Rating [3.25/5.0]	BUY & LISTEN on Bandcamp!

Atala‘s fourth full-length since forming in 2013, ‘The Bearer of Light’, eluded me in terms of words for quite some time. I meant to review it in full, had the template done with graphics and I sat there without a word to hit the keys with. I’m into it, I mean they’re described as progressive sludge/stoner metal but I’d say ‘desert doom’ is meaningful enough as a description. If Kyuss were ten tons heavier and had late 90’s Crowbar melodicism on the mind with some Nebula-esque wailing to be found it’d be Atala at a casual glance (and from my very 90’s stoner-assed perspective). ‘Bearer of Light’ comes from the mind of a man who finds peace in the solitude of the desert, a fellow who’d feel less alone among the wilderness and wide open spaces of southern California, and this spiritual rawness is well communicated throughout. The shorter and more stoner-rocked songs connected best and the longer, sludgier side of the band was generally more repetitive than I’d like so I end up feeling it is above average but with a few tracks I’d generally skip here and there.

Artist	Cold Black River
Title [Type/Year]	Tales of Death & The Devil [Reissue/2019]
Rating [2.75/5.0]	BUY & LISTEN on Bandcamp!

Does Cold Black River qualify as doom metal? I’d generally say no, they’re a bit like a southern rock influenced stoner metal group with a vocalist who sounds a bit too much like post-‘Elephant Riders’ era Neil Fallon (Clutch). Dark as their whole gig seems it is clear these folks are in it for fun and they’re kicking around late 90’s/early 2000’s Clutch and the most ‘commercial’ era of Kyuss with ‘…And the Circus Leaves Town’. Why include them here? Man, they’re just not gonna fit anywhere else and I felt like this would be up the alley of folks who dig for up-and-coming independent bands to support. The slow and bluesy groove should keep stoner/doom metal fans entertained on some level. Not my thing due to it being very standard and slightly too imitative but there are some good moments here and there. Hell, it wasn’t even originally released in 2019 but the CD version was so there you go.

Artist	Allone
Title [Type/Year]	Allone… [Reissue/2019]
Rating [3.5/5.0]	BUY & LISTEN on Bandcamp!

Formed by Andrzej Komarek of Polish progressive death metal band Praesepe after moving to England some years ago, this avant-garde black/doom project is immediately compelling for the fact that ‘Allone’ sources its lyrics entirely from the works of Charles Bukowski to craft a narrative of solitude, ‘oneness’. No doubt strong hints of second wave black metal influence much of the finer guitar technique within these four extended tracks but the structure of these songs is less Dissection in spirit and more in touch with the sort of melodic death/doom with progressive tinges that’d cropped up beyond the first few Opeth records reaching popular heights in the late 90’s/early 2000’s. The result is a mixture of black metal, dark metal, and melodic doom metal. Sounds like I’m describing Woods of Ypres but think more along the lines of Mental Home‘s ‘Black Art’ or Draconian in general; Add in a heavy influence from Norwegian black metal circa 1999. We won’t stray much further from either doom or sludge metal’s core than this but I felt it was well worth including something distinctly influenced by melodic doom, as much as this is an black metal record ~51% of the time.

Artist	Consecration
Title [Type/Year]	Fragilium [Full-length/2019]
Rating [3.75/5.0]	BUY & LISTEN on Bandcamp!

A full ten minutes of a single electric guitar eases into this second album from Norwich, England death/doom metal band Consecration. It follows a very lengthy retrospective compilation (‘Remembrance’) from last year that didn’t necessarily prepare the listener for this divergent evolution of the project beyond their 2014 debut ‘Ephemerality’. If you can imagine Ceremonium‘s big sound but viewed through an early Peaceville three point of view you’re on board with early Consecration but ‘Fragilium’ is a twisting of extremes in the sense that they bring some deeper death/doom presence as often as they shift to very minimalistic quietude. This comes across a bit early Paradise Lost, a heap of Mordor (Poland) and sometimes leans into the post-demo sound of Unholy (Finland). The tendency will be to want to compare this type of dynamic to early Opeth but a record like ‘Orchid’ is mind-numbingly progressive compared to the funeral doom-esque tendencies of Consecration where the pacing is consistent and the movements are generally lead by trailing guitar melody. I found this album excellent but it demanding incredible patience to review as I felt the ten minute clean guitar passage that kicks off the album lost my interest within roughly three minutes and I’d often skip those first seven minutes. The four ~12 minute tracks that finish off the album are more than enough so, I didn’t fully understand the intro piece. This is surely the bands finest work as it finds an original take on a well-worn sub-genre niche and creates a satisfying balance between emotive melodic death/doom and the raw bumbling wretch of straight death/doom of the mid-90’s.

Artist	Boatman’s Toll
Title [Type/Year]	The Fat is in The Fire [Reissue/2019]
Rating [3.0/5.0]	BUY & LISTEN on Bandcamp!

Here’s a 2017 self-released record from this Chicago modern sludge metal band who’ve had it picked up by the fine folks at Seeing Red Records and I can see why it was worth the license and reissue. They’re up front with the Mastodon and Crowbar influences up front but the overall pitch of the full listen shows some love for Acid Bath but with a very different vocal approach. The whole thing reads as a collage of great ideas from late 90’s sludge metal but where I kinda don’t understand the messaging for this release is when they start pointing towards ‘death metal’ influences, riffs, and well… Harsh vocals are fairly standard in sludge metal these days. If you can look past the expectations that the ‘death/sludge’ tag brings this is a nice blend of late ‘first wave’ sludge and the extremity of Soilent Green turned towards the alt-metal side of the genre in the late 90’s. Vocals are a bit over the top and have some limited range despite sounding quite a bit like early Crowbar and I was generally ready to jump ship around the fifth song; I’d eventually come back and finish the full listen but don’t think it holds more than the novelty of sounding like other bands at this point. Also really didn’t feel the Acid Bath cover at the end, not the most distinct song from the boys and the vocals didn’t cut it for my taste. I’m sure I’m being too rough on these guys but I figure if you can do this stuff this well, you can drum up greater variety overall.

Artist	Plague of Carcosa
Title [Type/Year]	Ocean is More Ancient Than the Mountains [EP/2019]
Rating [3.0/5.0]	BUY & LISTEN on Bandcamp!

This Chicago area instrumental post-doom/sludge metal duo offer what sounds like two eight minute jams that’d been somewhat composed into songs along the way. ‘Ocean is More Ancient Than the Mountains’ is a solid listen if you’re just looking for a handful of doom/sludge riffs without any frills or great stylistic interest. The lack of vocals is felt because of Plague of Carcosa‘s fairly minimalist, skull-clubbing sound so I’d never really found the point of real infatuation with anything the band does on this short EP. The guitar tone is nuclear scorched earth and the drums are a worthy foundation for each movement; I couldn’t help but feel that it sounded like an unfinished demo from a MySpace band back in 2006, someone’d heard Electric Wizard‘s guitar tone and applied it to Pelican, more or less. Just because I wanted more layers, more voice, more everything doesn’t mean I know shit though, try it for yourself.

Artist	Hex
Title [Type/Year]	God Has No Name [Full-length/2019]
Rating [3.0/5.0]	BUY & LISTEN on Bandcamp!

Spanish death/doom metal band Hex lean towards a groove/death metal influenced style on their second full-length ‘God Has No Name’. The groove metal influence is for the sake of Spain’s death/thrash metal history and comes as an ‘old school’ regional influence as the most effective songs here tend to lean into faster tempos. When Hex do slow down to a crawl the thinness of their guitar tone is all the more evident but this becomes an element of character rather than a dent in their style. Although I enjoyed ‘God Has No Name’ on a very basic level there was some disappointment when it came time to take stock of doom metal influenced elements from this death/doom metal band. The first album, ‘Deadly Sin’ (2014), had a God Forsaken kind of feeling but this one feels mechanical and lacking in deeper doom interest and/or riff variation. There are a few songs that nail it, though, such as “Worshiping Falsehood” and “Apocryphal”.

Artist	Tovarish
Title [Type/Year]	If the War Comes Tomorrow [Full-length/2019]
Rating [3.0/5.0]	LISTEN on Spotify!

Providence, Rhode Island experimental doom/noise group Tovarish deploy a narrative among comrades pitting good (the people) versus evil (capitalism) in this nihilistic bout of plunderous-yet-expressive manic sludge variations. No two songs are alike and the riffs are few and far between yet something ‘If the War Comes Tomorrow’ conveys its theme better than a traditional piece of music ever could. Spoken word samples are basically the worst part of modern musique concrete and plunderphonic dark noise but in this case it works in communicating a paranoid populace and a devious state. I’ve spent quite a lot of time reexamining this record and never found myself comfortably knowing how to describe it without either making it sound more insane than it is or giving compliments that were unintentionally underhanded. As a private and disturbing listen, a solitary trip, it is well worth a spin or two. The album art is excellent, too.

Artist	Cruickshank
Title [Type/Year]	Cruickshank [Full-length/2019]
Rating [3.5/5.0]	BUY & LISTEN on Bandcamp!

Here we’re grabbed by the throat and dunked in the cold waters of Cruickshank, slapping our faces into a layer of slime before feeling a rotten chill down the spine as the struggling to breathe sees manic thrashing and wild disorientation. Coughing, sputtering, hammering and unpredictable gasping all characterize this sludge punk meets extreme metallic modus on this Canadian quartet’s debut. Think of the mania of Iron Monkey without the abrasion they’re known for instead channeled through the crawling jerk of Coffinworm and topped off with a modern post-hardcore sensibility in terms of of song structure and you have a good idea of what to expect. Sounds amazing right? Well, when you boil it down to sludge/post-hardcore and some grinding moments it actually feels tame and the vocals are actually pretty average, even a bit ‘lazy’ at points where they don’t connect with their surroundings. This’ll stand out for the sludge/hardcore devout and no doubt be a hit with the modern UK sludgecore scene once they discover it. Not a huge record for my tastes but I can appreciate the energetic performances and genre melding intuition.

Artist	Abhor / Abysmal Grief
Title [Type/Year]	Legione Occulta / Ministerium Diaboli [Split EP/2019]
Rating [3.5/5.0]	BUY & LISTEN on Bandcamp!

Sacrilegious doom exudes from the horror addicted, stigmata spraying Italian legends of blackened keyboard-heavy doom masters we’ve all come to love on this split between Abhor and Abysmal Grief. Both bands put out masterful records in 2018 so this was highly anticipated on my end but uh, I have to admit this is not the best material they’ve put out in recent years. Abhor‘s “Legione Occulta” features a screaming exorcism as a major part of the music and it goes on for way too long, I ended up skipping it every time she starts to howl. From there “Possession Obsession” sounds like an excellent B-side from the ‘Occulta Religio’ sessions last year, I had to check and see if it was a cover of an old Mortuary Drape song. Abysmal Grief contribute one 13+ minute track with an eight minute introduction, again not their most shining moment but the second half makes up for this with a stomping number that recalls the catchy occult pulse of ‘Blasphema Secta’, minus any vocals. I am a big fan of each band in this case and though I enjoyed some of this split it never felt essential nor is it a good introduction to either band.

Artist	Rowsdower
Title [Type/Year]	The Michael Jordans of Suicide [Full-length/2019]
Rating [2.75/5.0]	BUY & LISTEN on Bandcamp!

Here’s an uh, experimental sludge metal project from members of Admiral Angry (who?) and Black Sheep Wall. Do I get it? No way. This is the sort of take on heavy music that leans so heavily into ‘weird for the sake of it’ that it boils down to a tuneless record with a host of bad synth experiments, joke songs, and a lot of hardcore shouting. What is he shouting? “Let the fudge flow / this is violence … this is beauty / this is art” next to a song like “Track 8” where a clip from The Office plays while a women asks “Fuck me!” repeatedly as someone obliges. Yep, give me a fuckin’ break. I sound like an old dick but holy hell was this hard to sit through. You might like it though, especially if you’re into the weirder side of experimental sludge coming out of Germany this last decade, it doesn’t stack up in terms of rhythm guitar interest (eh, riffs) but it does create its own stumbling atmospheric as it plays out.

Artist	Various Artists
Title [Type/Year]	Doom or Be Doomed: A French Tribute to Cathedral [Full-length/2019]
Rating [4.0/5.0]	BUY & LISTEN on Bandcamp!

If you haven’t kept up to speed with the fantastic curation from Sleeping Church Records so far here’s something you really shouldn’t miss if you’re as big of a Cathedral (and French metal) fan as I am. Here we’ve got what are more or less extreme doom (and some other) bands from all walks of French life paying tribute to British doom/stoner metal heroes Cathedral. Pillars, Presumption, Monolithe, Ataraxie and Barabbas all do fantastic jobs with their covers. I’d actually expected more takes from the early 90’s pre-stoner metal days of Cathedral due to the extreme doom lean of many of these projects but we get a pretty wide array of deep cuts from their legacy. The reinterpretations are all pretty solid, some are maybe too ambitious on the first disc but as a whole this was a fine listen that I am still spinning regularly.

Artist	Eternal Storm
Title [Type/Year]	Come the Tide [Full-length/2019]
Rating [3.25/5.0]	BUY & LISTEN on Bandcamp!

Though they qualify for the melodic death/doom metal tag just slightly more than your average atmospheric/melodic death metal band, Eternal Storm‘s strong emphasis on melodic leads tips the scales away from dark/melodic death and an inch closer to melodeath/doom, for my ears at least. As a debut full-length ‘Come the Tide’ makes a reasonable argument that Eternal Storm belong in the same grouping as recent efforts from Omnium Gatherum, Insomnium, and perhaps even In Mourning but without as distinct a presence. The full listen reveals itself as fairly neutral across a very ‘pretty’ arc of well written songs that are melodic but not too deeply melodramatic, progressive but not pretentious. It’d be fair to say not taking their sound ‘too far’ is the main reason why this album didn’t stick out so much in my mind but it’d make just as much sense to praise them for the exquisite balance achieved on this first major release from the project. If Eternal Storm can manage to maintain this high taste level while conveying deeper, bolder displays of emotion they’ll soon be on the level of groups like October Tide. Not much of a ‘doom’ album per se but, the point is to show the sub-genre edges as often as the obvious entries.

Artist	Leather Lung
Title [Type/Year]	Lonesome, On’ry and Evil [Full-length/2019]
Rating [3.75/5.0]	BUY & LISTEN on Bandcamp!

If the tits n’ ass n’ chains n’ flames are too much for you I dunno if you’re gonna be ready for the full spin of this Boston quartet and their rowdy, rasping, brand of sludge n’ roll. Well, what was Eyehategod from the start anyhow? A hardcore punk band playing southern rock with the guitar cranked so loud the feedback’d melt the wax from your ears and hey, Leather Lung arrives there from a way different angle but the feeling is about as unsettling, and dirty in a wholly different way. ‘Lonesome On’ry and Evil’ is primarily a stoner rock album with a heavy blues element and the rasping dark sludge affect of the main vocals is more a point of distinction than it is a sub-genre bending stylistic decision. The instrumentals here are pure boogie rock meets stoner metal kicks that aren’t too outrageous for the stoner scene in Boston but still very different from compatriots like Doomriders. I really got a kick out of this one.

Artist	Soul of Anubis
Title [Type/Year]	The Last Journey [Full-length/2019]
Rating [3.0/5.0]	BUY & LISTEN on Bandcamp!

Screaming, check. Chugging, check. Semi-‘progressive’ sludge metal arrangements on a few songs, check. We’ve got a modern groove-sludge metal record here and from Portugal of all places. Oddly enough this band had been mislabeled as ‘progressive thrash’ on several online databases based on their first EP years ago but their style has always been a progressive and aggressive version of modern sludge. I say ‘modern’ but these guys have that loud late 90’s style shout n’ chug ‘festival metal’ feeling that is common amongst Portuguese and Spanish metal these last few decades — It is more Gojira and early Mastodon than anything else. I don’t really lock into the ultra loud groove-heavy alt-metal stuff anymore so there wasn’t much on ‘The Last Journey’ for me.

Artist	The Fifth Alliance
Title [Type/Year]	The Depth of the Darkness [Full-length/2019]
Rating [3.0/5.0]	BUY & LISTEN on Bandcamp!

Just a few years ago this Netherlands based band had received some mold accolades for their blend of post-hardcore and blackened sludge metal but this time around they’ve traded away that ‘hardcore’ edge for a post-black metal sound that alternates with blackened sludge sections that are largely atmospheric. The blending of post-metal with post-black metal makes a lot of sense but I’d say The Fifth Alliance have traded what was interesting about their sound for a somewhat typical musical language in a crowded space. Yes, to be fair they are markedly better than average in creating dreary, dark atmospheric builds but this isn’t remarkable songwriting for the sub-genre hybrid they’ve undertaken. I might be quite saturated with this style of musical chairs but I know that it is quite popular and folks who casually listen to music love the first impression of groups like this. It is worth digging into as a smart piece of music capable of touching and wildly melodramatic moments that fully buys into the meandering disembodied spirit of post-metal. If you are in need of a fine middle ground between atmosludge/post-metal and post-black, this is a solid place to rest.

Artist	Pinewalker
Title [Type/Year]	Migration [Full-length/2019]
Rating [3.75/5.0]	BUY & LISTEN on Bandcamp!

The young fellows in Salt Lake City, Utah based sludge/doom/stoner metal band Pinewalker clearly cannot be satisfied putting out the status quo as every second of ‘Migration’ has a point and each song has a point of interest. There is weight behind every riff and a soul behind the voice(s) driving the ship. I don’t know if every song works as a standalone experience (“Burning Earth”, for example) but as a whole these parts come together as well, a sludge band with some damn personality. The dismal mood of the full listen comes with bouts of hope and does convey the intended narrative which is meant as catharsis among members dealing with loss, specifically to cancer (giving some deeper morose meaning to ‘Migration’). Solid debut, vocals don’t always gel with one another but the vibe and overall package is in good taste for an introduction.

Artist	Tankograd
Title [Type/Year]	Totalitarian [Full-length/2019]
Rating [3.75/5.0]	BUY & LISTEN on Bandcamp!

Here’s one of the most overlooked stoner/doom/sludge releases from earlier in the year, to be fair it was a packed February. Tankograd approach a subject that is uncomfortable for many and do so in their native Polish language so, the clips from World War II speeches and such do kind of overshadow just how heavy and generally creative ‘Totalitarian’ is as a full listen. Though they might carry on at a similar jogging pace no two songs on this record sound the same and this allows Tankograd to tell a story without necessarily translating into a different language, it is difficult to make sense of Polish when using auto-translate so I’d more or less resigned to enjoy the record for what it conveys otherwise. Unrest, death, oppression and that life fights on despite massive human suffering.

Artist	Silver Devil
Title [Type/Year]	Paralyzed [Full-length/2019]
Rating [4.0/5.0]	BUY & LISTEN on Bandcamp!

There couldn’t be a more perfect high note to end on that the heavy blues spilling stoner doom jog of Silver Devil‘s ‘Paralyzed’. I believe they’re from the Gävle area in Sweden and what stands out most about this band is how much darker they are compared to the typical Stockholm-adjacent stoner rock/metal outfits typically are. One of my favorite Swedish stoner metal records is Terra Firma‘s ‘Harm’s Way’ and I felt like this was kind of a serious doom version of that feeling; Adventurous and alive a la Dozer but also sorrowful and falling fast into ruinous catchiness. Upon first listen I left the title track on repeat for hours in awe of its rumbling and tuneful spirit which’d lead to regular listening of ‘Paralyzed’ for months despite not setting aside time to review it. Though it is unassuming and a bit ‘normal’ in most respects I felt Silver Devil hit upon something special with this second album.

Did I miss your favorite 2019 album? Send me an e-mail and tell me about it. It is always worthwhile to speak up for the lesser known stuff. Please consider a small donation to help keep me in front of the computer writing about metal. Thanks.