Sleazy & Occult Cultists
I discovered the Italian quintet with this album and I’m glad I did. I think I brushed them off as another insipid doom/stoner band at first and I couldn’t be more wrong. Caronte approaches doom from many interesting avenues and always goes for the jugular with their passionate darkened take.
Mixing the larger than life Elvis memorial presence of Glenn Danzig with the English romanticism of Nick Holmes from Paradise Lost, their lead singer Dorian Bones (“Big sunglasses, cool band” - Fenriz) drives the band to another echelon. His gruff clean vocals intertwined momentarily with some harsher moments are reminiscent of Alan Averill (Primordial) at times too. It’s epic and uncompromising. He sounds like a high priest leading a procession and you know it will end up bloody as hell. They’re the doom equivalent of Luciferian unorthodox black metal, it’s good to know that you can always count on the Italians to be the most blasphemous. It must be the influence of the Vatican.
Taking cues from the now death occult rock movement and in particular from The Devil’s Blood (perhaps the best band from that whole wave, to be fair), the Italians focus on the esoteric and the dark magicks to great results. Spiritually closed to Black Oath, the best modern Italian traditional doom band, Caronte aren’t static in their doom explorations. From blackened doom to aggressive post-punky rock (it has some Beastmilk vibes), they’re happy to provide a plethora of different paints to their doomed palette. It’s mostly black though, let’s be honest. Like the golden chimera (part Lion, part dragon, part goat etc), it’s a multifaceted entity taking the strongest features of every creatures. I do think they’re a bit unfocused at times though but I do admire their willingness to navigate a lot of diverse seas.
The duel guitars provide an interesting atmosphere and considering they’re a live band too, it’s necessary to deliver the complexity of their mood swings. They’re musically intense and their eight songs are packed to the brim. They’re a band that got tighter and tighter in the songwriting department throughout the years. 2014’s Church of Shamanic Goetia had ten minutes songs and was one hour long. It seems they’re over that formula with Wolves of Thelema. They got less into stoner metal too while retaining their shamanic preaching and strong riffs.
If you like your metal dark, esoteric and with a blasphemous sleazy attitude, Caronte are your dudes.
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