Friday 20 April 2018

Smoulder – The Sword Woman (2018) / 84%


Engrossing magical doom



With the recent releases of Palmistry, Loviatar and Sons of Geezora, Canadian doom continues to grow and impress. It’s now the time for Smoulder to join the war against bad riffs. I had the chance to hear some of their early demos when Sarah and Shawn crashed at Metantoine’s headquarters for the final edition of Wings of Metal last year and I was pretty dazzled by what they showed me. Almost a year after that, their first foray into doom is out and it doesn’t disappoint.

Smoulder exactly has the things I like in doom. It has solid, heavy riffs, soaring clean, semi-operatic vocals and a gritty fantasy approach. Influenced by the balls to the wall sound of The Gates of Slumber, the intelligent epic side of Solitude Aeternus and the uncompromising ideals of Reverend Bizarre. The Canadian core of Sarah and Shawn joined by three other members including some Americans (two members of Illinois’ Olórin) displays a deep understanding of what traditional or epic doom metal stands for and what it should be. Shawn Vincent already showed his above than average metalness with his solo heavy project Ezra Brooks (covered by yours truly) and currently handles the bass with the impressive Toronto unit Manacle. Sarah works as a metal journalist and she’s in the music industry but this was the first time her vocals were recorded and she does a great job, she sounds like a young Valkyrie who will only get better as time goes by. The mix of her vocals and the groovy, impatient riffs reminds me of Mourn's sole album released more than twenty years ago and that's not a small deed since I consider that self-titled album to be the best female fronted doom album of all time.

The twin guitars add a complexity often found in bands like Atlantean Kodex, Pagan Altar or Solstice and the loud bass fills any void that could have been there. Check out the interesting bass break in "Voyage of the Maiden Chaser"! Overall, the musicianship is tremendous but it's never overly flashy. Nevertheless, I would have liked a longer, slower track but that’s just me. I feel those long ass songs truly show what a doom band is capable of! Maybe they’ll unleash one on their debut full-length.

Even though it was released on 4/20, there’s nothing related to weed culture here. It’s seriously engrossing sword and sorcery doom of the highest caliber. Get this demo as soon as possible.



Smoulder on Bandcamp