Death the Leveller – I (2017) / 82%

Balanced and potent formula

I was intrigued to see that Cruz Del Sur were gonna release the debut album of Death the Leveller in March 2020 so I went back to check their 2017 EP to get myself ready. Doom metal? Check. Best traditional metal label in the world? Check. Buddies of the best metal band in the world (Primordial)? Check. I was excited to hear this. Formed by the instrumental core of Mael Mórdha, a band I’ve heard a decade ago but forgot about, Death the Leveller dismissed the folk elements of their former band and decided to explore the bleakness that doom can convey.

I was pretty much sold the moment I saw the artwork combined with the epic track lengths of that “extended play”. I mean, it’s almost forty minutes of music divided within four songs... Plenty of meat on the bone. The quartet has this compelling dark aesthetic that’s really appealing to me as far as doom metal goes. I knew what to expect with that skeleton holding a balance and I wasn’t disappointed. I guess they could be compared to Dread Sovereign, Alan Averill’s doom metal side project but I’ve found them more interesting. “All Hell’s Martyrs” was a disappointment for me and I think I haven’t heard their followup yet. The thought of a doom metal Primordial was intriguing and Death the Leveller kind of filled that need.

The vocals of Denis Dowling have the same passion and intensity as Averill’s but they’re also cleaner and more rooted in pure heavy metal. Robust singing all around here. Really memorable, in fact. The ending of the last track “How to Track Pernicious Spells” made me shiver. The instrumentation is pretty pristine and the production sis top notch, they’re veteran musicians after all, that’s obvious enough. They're super good at building crescendos, creating tensions and just using their extended song structures efficiently.

The songs are all pretty much nine to ten minutes but they’re filled to the brim with riffs and they’re not what I’d call slow either. “Gone Forever” has insanely good riffing till the end of its duration. I’d say that Death the Leveller plays some sort of melancholic, atmospheric doom metal which isn’t too far away from what traditional doom can be at times. Bands like Warning, Mirror of Deception or The River navigates the sad waters of depressive doom but there's many more mysterious islands to discover. Death the Leveller definitely has a boat with several oarsmen since they’re constantly active, constantly bludgeoning and constantly interesting throughout the forty minutes duration. I’m turning thirty in like two months and long albums can be a drag to listen to nowadays so I’m hoping their album isn’t seventy minutes! Just like Primordial, you come out emotionally drained after spinning them.

It’s intense without being abrasive, dark without being shallow and trite, epic and complex without being syrupy. I’m quite stoked for what’s to come.

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Primordial – To the Nameless Dead (2007) / 100%

Stoutness, Sophistication and Sorrow

Tony’s classics part III: One of my favorite bands for like a decade, I always wanted to get my thoughts together and write a Primordial review. This is, in my opinion, their magnum opus so here it is.

To the Nameless Dead is a pure emotional voyage through music with a strong historical grasp of the world. With these eight songs, Alan Averill explores the dark past of Ireland with a sharp pen and an intellectual mind. The lyrics while linked to certain moments in time can also be interpreted in a timeless or contemporary way. “Empire Falls” can be seen as the fall of the Roman Empire or the upcoming and likely destruction of the modern western world and he, himself, mentions the fall of the west in the notes of the truly epic “As Rome Burns”

“The West is ripe for the picking, ready for the fall”

It’s not an objective vision though and nor should it be. It’s a sad and pessimistic portrayal worthy of Ireland’s rough history. There’s harsh connotations about genocide, assimilation, the faith of nations and the reasons and repercussions of wars. There’s also a true analytic work behind the lyrics of Primordial and it’s true for all their albums. They underlines the deep meaningful aspects of Earth’s tragic and often unfair history. Their four previous albums (The Gathering Wilderness in particular) almost reached the perfect mix of depressive storytelling and music and even if the band has never released a bad album (and possibly never will), their formula has never been as accomplished as it is on this 2007 opus.

“History is often dictated by faith. Putting the worlds to rights while it passes you by. Is there an honour in following your words to the bitter end despite being plagued with doubts?”

If I truly believe in something it must be the fact that the quintet will never give up their quest to unravel the shadows of the human psyche with their sound. Still, enough about their thematics, let’s talk about how freaking good the music is instead. Primordial are one of those bands formed in the 90s who really managed to craft an idiosyncratic sound out of already existing sounds. Bands like Opeth, Moonspell, Rotting Christ or even Darkthrone all created new versions of genres but in Primordial’s case, it took more time for their identity to be developed to its most refined version, the To the Nameless Dead version. While 1995’s Imrama is a good album, it feels unfinished and lacking in scope. Taking the epic sound of Viking era Bathory and drowning it in Celtic folk, we should be in known territories but the compositions are so distinctive and surprising.

I do think that a lot of great bands possess the ability to build a wall of sound where all the instrumentation comes together to make the recipe totally complete. While you can of course praise the guitar playing of MacUiliam or the thunderous drumming of O’Laoghaire, the five guys all come together in the end. The songs are long and meandering in the best way possible. They’re also packed with riffs and never feel like they’re overlong. There’s basically no bands who are that tight at writing eight minutes songs. Primordial are classified as a black metal band only because no other genre can fit their lush yet dark sound. Dark metal isn’t a real genre either, go away Bethlehem. They’re hand to pinpoint not only because of Alan’s vocals but also because of the unique and intricate songwriting. Their riffs can often be seen as simple but they’re emotionally charged and the duel guitar approach gave the band an atmospheric force. It’s never whiny, self-absorbed or pretentious, it’s down to earth and has the right amount of melodies and memorable vocal lines to feed the entire city of Dublin for decades.

“Oh they’re folk metal? Like Korpiklaani?”

“NO.”

Folk metal is mostly a vile genre full of drink-along songs and lyrics about Hobbits and generic vikings with horns on their helmets (not historically accurate, motherfuckers). On the other hand, Primordial are so much deeper and interesting in their conservative but still quite original way. It’s not overproduced (“not very produced” to quote the booklet) and it makes the sound really natural. There’s no useless flush, no keyboards or flutes. It’s lo-fi folk metal full of gloomy attitude. As an example, the subtle use of acoustic guitar in “Heathen Tribes” is far from cheesy and overdone. Their seriousness and their sophisticated yet honest epic side is what makes them so great. They never try to impress with neoclassical guitar solos or bludgeon the listener with gear worshiping riffs. Primordial is the mysterious rogue at the obscured table at the back of the tavern who knows that he could take you down with ease if he wanted to. This album managed to kick my arse when I’ve heard it in 2008 and I still spin my copy often (three times during the writing of this review!)

Alan Averill has always been one of my vocalist for the unadulterated passion he delivers. He’s one of those instantly recognizable voices in metal and he’s always so emotional and expressive. He’s really good at those gritty harsh vocals like the ones on “No Nation on This Earth” but the soaring cleans were always my personal highlight as they’re the aspect of the band that made me a fan in the place. He’s like a possessed spirit singing the woes of his nation to whoever come across his tomb. Like the music, his voice transcends genres, he fits epic doom very well (see his other band Dread Sovereign) or even war metal (see the short lived Irish/Canadian project Blood Revolt) and he never gets boring.

Their latest two albums tried to expand their sound a bit but they’re not as compact and as To the Nameless Dead. This album hits all the sweet spots in terms of lyrics, riffs, ideas and overall enjoyment. Primordial are without a doubt a blue collar band, hard working and hard drinking individuals who continue to do what they love despite all odds. Regardless of who they appear to be, they’re highly intelligent and this is a masterpiece for the ages.

Primordial in 2007

Graveyard Dirt – My Scourge, My Dirt (2015) / 77%

In the Sleep of Death

Alongside Mourning Beloveth (who are kings), this band is the best the country of Ireland has to offer as far as doom/death is concerned. It’s a shame that they had so many issues during their career and only managed to release one full length and 3 Eps/demos, this is their latest record released last year and like all their stuff it’s pretty damn great. In fact, Ireland has produced so many good bands for such a small scene, Primordial remains one of the best act on the planet.

Obviously inspired by the Peaceville three from the other side of the Celtic Sea (or the Irish Sea), you can definitely hear the influence of early Paradise Lost and My Dying Bride here and their music has always been almost as good as “Turn Loose the Swans” or “Gothic”, their 2007 extended play “Shadows of Old Ghosts” is particularly stellar. This one, while not as interesting (perhaps due to the passage of time), is still immensely good and I hope they’re working on a new album. I do think their genre is somewhat exhausting though, For Grace or Damnation is a decent album but one hour of despair is sometimes hard to digest. I think their approach works better with a shorter format as it’s music highly related to a particular, exhausting mood. Some bands, never mind their quality, just don’t work as well for an extended period of time, Graveyard Dirt are possibly one of them. It’s probably why I think this EP is just the right dose! The album is divided in two sections, two shorter tracks start the album and it concludes with the longer number and it never gets too much or boring.

If you’re familiar with doom/death, you’ll be right at home here. Their formula is a bit like MDB at their heaviest (see “The Dreadful Hours”), it’s long songs full of romanticism, varied vocal approaches and an inviting dark mood, you really want to dress like a 1450 English nobleman who just visits the grave of his dead wife everyday while you’re listening to ‘em.

Paul Leyden simply freaking rocks at the mic, his clean vocals are more ballsy than Aaron Stainthorpe and his harsh vocals are even better than those of the old version of Thomas Gabriel Fischer. In fact the last track “The Sirens Refrain” sounds like a more natural rendition of Triptykon’s gothic extreme metal. While the musicianship has nothing to be ashamed of (it’s pretty solid), he’s the best thing about this band.

While it’s certainly nothing groundbreaking for 2015, it’s well done doom that will surely please any fans of ballsy sad guy metal. It’s still better than Pallbearer! Basically mix the Peaceville sound with modern Tom G. Warrior ughs and you got the sound of Graveyard Dirt.

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ZOM -Multiversal Holocaust (2013) | 70%

ZOM ZOM ZOM ZOM ZOM! Yeah!

Coming from the wretched country of Ireland, ZOM is a promising black/death metal unit and that's their third release. I never heard their previous offerings but judging from this short 7 inches, they still need to progress to achieve their own sound. Influenced by a plethora of extreme metal sounds, ZOM is interesting but not enough to rise the echelons to attain the bestial stardom.

I sure like a dirty and noisy production and this trio apparently do too. I'm actually not quite fond of how the drums are burying the guitars especially that they're not quite special or interesting. The riffs are quite decent, their production could have been sharper and heavier though. Influenced by classic black metal bands such as Nifelheim, Blasphemy or kvlt newcomers like Adversarial and the whole Nuclear War Now ! Lineup ! ZOM incorporates thrash elements in their music with really enjoyable trashy breaks reminiscent of Slayer or Sodom. These, despite my current aversion to most things thrash these days, were the most enjoyable moments of this release. They really drive the songs to new heights and I think ZOM is at their best when they slow things down a little and show some doom/death influences. With this said, I prefer having these tasty thrash riffs over mindless, inane and useless short blurbs called solos by Revenge. There's a short Kerrykingish lead at the end of the second track Terror of the Cosmos but like I said, it's almost completely buried under the production and the drums.

I also really appreciate their atmospheric tendencies and their short but tasty samples of lamentations and similar dark shit. I feel they're not quite apt at really using their occult atmosphere though, it feels incomplete and I'm sure they could serve a better purpose, the 2 songs are both almost six minutes but they could really reach the seven or eight minutes mark without any problems (and in fact, there's an 8 minutes version of the title track on their previous demo...too bad they edited the song!)

Both songs are stopping abruptly, I think they suffer from coitus interruptus. They could easily breathe better and have the sufficient amount of time to grow into full fledged epic numbers like Bôlzer who's also on Iron Bonehead records. I think there's an avalanche of riffs, yes, but it's way too condensed. Still, ZOM are good at building bestial and old school metal and at creating an eerie, occult feel throughout the 12 minutes release. As reflected by the great but simple album art, the band has a cool imagery but they need to push the envelope further with a stronger songwriting to reflect that.

I think ZOM (fuck, I like to say their name, ZOM, ZOM, ZOM!!!) has a lot of potential and I'm looking forward to their first full length album but for now, I can't say the band is ready to be Satan's house band. Get drunker, guys and do more complex evil incantations !

Buy the release here, thanks to Iron Bonehead for the promo copy!