John the Baptist – John the Baptist (2021) / 90%

 

Pour some (un)holy water on me!

I’ve been expecting a full length album from these guys for like four years now but it’s fine, they’re playing the long game in every aspects of their identity. The mysterious fellas are coming from a black metal background (Blood Red Fog in particular) definitely embraced true doom as it’s oozing from everywhere on that debut album. I’m embracing the depressive and morose start of the year even more with their downer music. 2021 will suck too y’all, better prepare yourself.

Obviously fans of Reverend Bizarre (as any sane people should be), John the Baptist is still a different entity than their ancestor. Sure, they have the same guitar, bass and drums formula we’re used to in doom metal (and other metal genres...) but they used their tools in a sprawling, almost funeral doom kind of way. It’s slow, brooding and thundering like an angry god.

It’s six songs for eighty minutes of music so put on your warmer socks since we’re going in cold. There’s no breaks either, they don’t let go and aren’t allowing you any toilet breaks. It’s a deluge (hehe, look at the artwork) of riffs, either slow, mid paced or sometimes even fast (!!!). The two shortest tracks, expertly placed in the middle of the album, showcases some faster riffs and the main melody of “Odds at Redemption” reminds me of Uncle Acid’s Blood Lust album but slowed the fucked down.

While still aiming at some sort of grandiose true traditional doom, I feel John the Baptist are also minimalist in nature. Things are kept rooted in aura of do it yourself-ness and relies entirely on the strength of their songwriting and musicianship while an airy and natural production engulfs everything. The guitars are heavy but relatively muddy (in a good way) and the drums are precise, loud and surprisingly subtle at times. The bass isn’t as hard as I was expecting but it’s filling the void with care. They let things breathe in the compositions and there’s a solemn atmosphere created by the simple yet catchy riffs here. There’s almost the same feel as on Evangelist’s outputs, it’s anti-Christian in a studious way. Even if they’re not epic doom like the Poles, there’s a few more epic moments such as the medieval war samples and the use of an organ on “A Glimpse of Valor” bringing more variety to the album.

The vocals are often the highlights in Finnish trad doom and while we’re not reaching the same high peaks as on the Hynninen albums (Reverend Bizarre, Spiritus Mortis) or even the ones fronted by Pesonen (The Wandering Midget or Serpent Warning), they’re pretty enjoyable. The deep, tenebrous and operatic vocals are well done and they’re somewhat under the waves, laying perfectly on the seabed.

Even if I’m a bit uncomfortable with some of the far right views the band could be linked to (Circle of Dawn, Nécropole, Finland’s black metal in general), this album is a gem of slow true doom metal and it’s great to know that this kind of stuff is still being created right now. It’s probably the best album of that specific niche to be released since Acolytes of Moros’ debut album. If your idea of good doom is fifteen minutes songs with a maximum of three or four riffs in each, buy this immediately.

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