Clouds – Doliu (Reissue) Reviewed: April 2021 Released: 2021, Personal Records Rating: 4.5/5 Reviewer: Aaron Yurkiewicz Sometimes you need a second chance to make a first impression. Originally released independently in 2014, DOLIU was the debut album from the multi-national doom conglomerate known as Clouds (Tiamat reference?). Though the band…
Doom Metal
Paradise Lost – Gothic Live at Roadburn 2016
Paradise Lost – Gothic Live at Roadburn 2016 Reviewed: April 2021 Released: 2021, Bandcamp Rating: 5/5 Reviewer: Aaron Yurkiewicz I’m going to date myself here, but bear with me. 30 years ago, I walked into Murmur Records in College Park, FL and purchased LOST PARADISE and GOTHIC on cassette tape…
Vokonis – Odyssey
Reviewed: April 2021 Released: 2021, The Sign Rating: 4/5 Reviewer: Lee Carter There’s somewhat of an expectation with modern progressive metal music that it needs to sound somewhat introspective. Whether that is in harder, heavier subgenres such as death metal, or lighter examples, there’s a certain level of brood that…
Mourners – Act I: Tragedies
Mourners – Act I: Tragedies Reviewed: April 2021 Released: 2020, Personal Records Rating: 4.5/5 Reviewer: Aaron Yurkiewicz At its best, funeral doom can be a wholly transformative and emotional experience. There’s really something beautiful about creating an environment of overwhelming sadness whose misery is prolonged through minimalist structure and intentional…
Jurassic Witch – Black Masses and Ashes
Jurassic Witch – Black Masses and Ashes Reviewed: April 2021 Released: 2021, Bandcamp Rating: 3/5 Reviewer: Aaron Yurkiewicz Fact – Stoners love dinosaurs. And while there’s no definitive evidence to prove that dinosaurs loved stoners, there’s also not any evidence to say that they didn’t… So ponder that while you…
Grief Collector – En Delirium
Reviewed: April 2021 Released: 2021, Petrichor Rating: 3.5/5 Reviewer: Kieron Hayes One of the most striking things about Grief Collector and their debut full-length En Delirium is that the vocals will sound immediately familiar to fellow doom aficionados, as it’s none other than Robert Lowe, mournful maestro and former frontman…
Byron – The Omega Evangelion
Reviewed: April, 2021 Released: March 26, 2021, The Goatmancer Records Rating: 4/5 Reviewer: The Elitist Metalhead Byron is an eclectic mix of doom, rock, traditional metal and occult rock that makes for quite an interesting sound. This band was started as a one man project by ex Church of Void…
Metal-Rules Exclusive: Finnish Heavy/Doom band BYRON (feat. former members of CHURCH OF VOID, HORNA and BATTLELORE) Premier Debut Album THE OMEGA EVANGELION
“I’m proud and privileged to present BYRON’S debut album THE OMEGA EVANGELION as an exclusive premiere for the respectful audience of metal-rules.com, out March 26, 2021! THE OMEGA EVANGELION serves an eclectic mix of melodic metal, occult rock, stoner and some darker sides of doom as a theme album of…
Interview with Plague Weaver
Plague Weaver – Interview with J.C. (vocals) & R.M. (guitars/keyboards) Interview By: Beandog Websites: Bandcamp / Facebook Excited by Plague Weaver’s latest collection of blackened doom metal riffs, Metal Rules were pleased to make contact with the band and talk to them about how Ascendant Blasphemy came together. Metal Rules:…
Plague Weaver – Ascendant Blasphemy
Reviewed: March 2021 Released: 2021, Rating: 3.5/5 Reviewer: Beandog Forged in 2018 and hailing from Ontario, Canada, Plague Weaver was initially created as a solo project for a musician who tags himself simply as, R.M. He performed all the instruments on 2019’s self-titled debut and 2020’s ‘Through the Sulphur Eyes”.…
Drift Into Black – Patterns Of Light
Reviewed: March 2021 Released: 2021, self-released Rating: 3.5/5 Reviewer: Lee Carter Whilst one-man projects can be a godsend for creativity, they do tread a very fine line between that and overwrought extravagance. With no one to say “no”, who’s to say whether a particular idea for a song is too…
Lake Of Tears – Ominous
March 2021 February 19th, 2021 / AFM Records Rating: 4.0 / 5.0 Reviewer: John Haseltine Lake of Tears is a Swedish heavy metal band initially formed in 1994. The band’s sound consists mainly of playing gothic metal and doom. After some creative differences in the early 2000’s they disbanded…
Mourners – Act I: Tragedies
Reviewed: February 2021 Released: 2021, Personal Records Rating: 2.5/5 Reviewer: Kieron Hayes Act I: Tragedies is the debut album of Romanian doomsters and appropriately-named Mourners, which itself is a band continuing the legacy of previous group Eyes of Solitude, so despite being a first full-length, these guys have some experience…
Best of 2020: Kieron Hayes
01. Igorrr – Spirituality and Distortion (SAMPLE) Spirituality and Distortion is a truly strange album, and it plays into that as its strength just perfectly. It’s one of those avant-garde metal albums that throws in a ton of different sounds, either one after another or at the same time. You’ll…
Dread Sovereign – Alchemical Warfare
Dread Sovereign – Alchemical Warfare Reviewed: January 2021 Released: 2021, Metal Blade Records Rating: 4/5 Reviewer: Aaron Yurkiewicz Full disclosure – the last time I paid any attention to Primordial was around SPIRIT THE EARTH AFLAME, and I had zero inclinations that Nemtheanga had been spending the last few years…