Doom metal – Page 3 – 7th Level Music

Rewind Review: Black Sabbath – Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (1973)

What do you do if you’re in a legendary doom metal band, but all of your members (especially your guitarist) are doing cocaine and / or chugging booze almost nonstop, are exhausted from a massive tour, and are also running out of ideas for your fifth album?

If you’re Black Sabbath, your go back to Gloucestershire, England and record Sabbath Bloody Sabbath in a haunted castle.

Tommy Iommi‘s opening riff on the title track is the sound of ancient monsters awakening from a long slumber, and the song drifts into psychedelia at the right points to keep the shredding from overwhelming you. “A National Acrobat” is a song about DNA, believe it or not, and what determines who we become. Bill Ward keeps his drums simple, almost jazzy at some points, to good effect.

The lovely “Fluff” is pretty much a lullaby, which you’d never expect from that album cover…but you might from the back cover.

“Sabbra Cadabra” shreds on every level. Geezer Butler‘s bass roars and struts, while Ozzy Osbourne goes for broke with his vocals, having a great time behind the microphone. As if that’s not enough, along come Yes‘ Rick Wakeman to play a Minimoog on the track (and he was paid in beer!).

“Killing Yourself to Live” has soaring guitar work from Iommi. He creates a sound both majestic and heavy. The synths on “Who Are You?” ooze with creepy menace as Osbourne calls out cults of personality and the people who lead them. The groove of “Looking for Today” is top-notch. The album ends with “Spiral Architect,” a song about death (go figure) that includes lush string instruments and bright synths (and applause) to send us out on an uplifting note.

Like the other first six Black Sabbath albums (the only ones you can trust, according to a T-shirt I saw worn by Nick Aguilar of Frankie and The Witch Fingers), Sabbath Bloody Sabbath was sometimes derided upon its release but it now considered a metal classic. It’s impressive that it was completed and turned out so well, considering all the band was dealing with in 1973.

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Rewind Review: Black Sabbath – self-titled (1970)

I can’t understate how much Black Sabbath‘s self-titled debut from 1970 changed the game. Many words have been written on this fact, so I’m not adding anything new by declaring that no one had heard anything like this before 1970. Sure, there had been heavy psychedelic rock, and some of it downright spooky (Looking at you, 13th Floor Elevators.), but this was spooky and heavy.

The opening title track alone has Ozzy Osbourne singing about some sort of dark…thing, Satan himself, arises out of smoke to point a black finger at him and possibly doom him for all time. Osbourne pleads to God, and us, for help while Tommy Iommi‘s guitar sounds like weird chants, Bill Ward‘s drums are like rolling thunder that rumbles at distance and then overwhelms you moments later, and Geezer Butler‘s bass is like cloven footsteps approaching you from the dark.

Just when you think there’s no light in this pit, along comes “The Wizard,” a song about Gandalf and loaded with enough blues harmonica from Osbourne to power a Howlin’ Wolf track. It’s one of their best early cuts, and just a lot of damn fun. Finishing up Side A is the four-song medley of “Wasp / Behind the Wall of Sleep / Bassically,” and “N.I.B.” Clocking in at nearly eleven minutes, the four tracks have a great swagger to them that keeps you hooked the entire time, even as Osbourne sings about your body turning into a corpse. Don’t worry, though, because the morning sun will break the spell and awaken you from this horrible dreams. Geezer’s solo on “Bassically” leads into the thudding “N.I.B.” (named after Geezer’s “pen nib” goatee) and Osbourne singing a warning about how deceptive the devil can be.

“Wicked World” starts Side B with wicked, almost jazz-chop drums from Ward, who was clearly having a blast in the recording studio that day. Osbourne sings about social injustice with lyrics that, unfortunately, are still relevant (“People got to work just to earn their bread while people just across the sea are counting the dead.”). The second side ends with another medley, this one of “A Bit of Finger” / “Sleeping Village” / and “Warning” that almost four minutes than the medley on Side A. Most of it is a creeping, menacing instrumental (“Sleeping Village”), while the end is a song about staying away from a potentially dangerous (and mystical?) woman.

It’s a classic album, and an important one not just in the history of metal, but of music in general. It flattened people back in 1970 and still hits as hard as a battle axe.

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Review: Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs – Death Hilarious

I was already onboard for Death Hilarious, the new album by Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs, when I heard the first single, “Detroit,” in November 2024. Then, they unveiled this wild album cover and I knew we were in for a(nother) treat from them.

The album begins with a song about a problem lead singer and lyricist Matthew Baty had going into the album – (Writer’s) “Blockage.” “I’m staring straight ahead, infinitely bored,” he sings to begin the track. He’s not sure what he has left to say. Thankfully for all of us, and his shredding / pounding bandmates, he realized a bit of Zen in that the emptiness of the universe (and his brain) contains everything.

The stomping anger of “Detroit” is like the sensation of watching a lit bomb fuse slowly burning toward its deadly payload and Baty tells us, “Everyone leaves. You’re all the same. I’m not the one to blame.” John-Michael Hedley‘s bass hits extra hard on “Collider,” while lead guitarist Adam Ian Sykes pays homage to his British heavy metal idols throughout it and Baty sings about existential dread.

“Stitches” has been compared to some Motörhead tracks, but it hits more like Blue Öyster Cult for me. It’s a ripper either way, with Sykes and producer / fellow guitarist Sam Grant trading killer riffs and Ewan Mackenzie nailing some of his biggest fills and cymbal crashes on it (His subtle ride cymbal hits will make you think, “Damn, dude, that’s not fair.”).

Just when you think you might have them figured out, they bring in El-P for a guest rap on “Glib Tongued” — quite possibly the darkest hip hop track you’ll hear this year. “The Wyrm” is one of the album’s longest track at just over seven minutes (which, compared to when the band was putting out songs three times that length, is a warmup for them) and crushes the entire time. It feels like a truck has hit you when it really kicks in around the 2:15 mark.

“Carousel” has Baty feeling like he’s spinning in circles and trying to get off the titular ride the world has become in the last few years. The guitars on “Coyote Call” rocket into cosmic rock riffs while the drums and bass are practically terraforming a new planet underneath you. As if that wasn’t heavy enough, the final track, “Toecurler,” is like an avalanche you first see at a distance and think is moving like a slow mudslide, but find out, too late, that it’s roaring down at you like a shattered ancient mountain…and the stoner-funk breakdown about seven-and-a-half minutes into it? Genius.

The whole album has this heavy FAFO sound to it. The band has said they wanted the album to be rougher and, no past-album-pun intended, visceral than their psych-doom album Land of Sleeper, and it certainly delivers. You can live, laugh, and love all you like, but the porcine septet are here to remind you that you’re gonna die, and it might be hilarious when you do.

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Review: Blackwater Holylight – If You Only Knew EP

Blackwater Holylight excel at writing, singing, and playing haunting songs that take doom rock into spectral places. Now, with their new EP If You Only Knew, the band take their doom rock into the shoegaze realm and the results are excellent.

Sarah McKenna‘s rainfall-like electric piano opens the EP on “Wandering Lost.” It matches the sorrowful guitar from Mikayla Mayhew as lead singer / bassist Sunny Faris reminds us that we all suffer at some point, and we can sometimes find solace in that. The song kicks into grand metal riffs in the second half, with drummer Eliese Dorsay putting down beats that Nordic metal bands would love.

“Torn Reckless” is a gorgeous shoegaze track that caught me by surprise. Faris sings about standing on the precipice of a relationship and not sure if plunging off it or backing away is the right decision. Mayhew’s guitar sounds like its being pumped through a dozen half-blown amplifiers.

“Fate Is Forward” is pure 1990s (good) alt-rock with its bursting guitars and quiet-loud-quiet verses and chorus. It’s almost a forgotten Failure track, and it’s impossible to choose who shines the most on it, but why should you bother? Just let it wash over you like a rolling thunderstorm.

Finally, I did not have “Blackwater Holylight covers Radiohead.” on my 2025 bingo card, but they’ve done it with a beautiful version of “All I Need.” They keep the buzzing synths and add more guitar fuzz. Faris’ version of Thom Yorke‘s vocals make the song open its heart a bit more and, yes, make it sexier.

This is one of Blackwater Holylight’s best records, and a great sign of good things to come as they continue to explore and expand their sound.

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[Thanks to Andi at Terrorbird Media!]

Slumbering Sun are “Together Forever” on their new single from their upcoming album.

Austin band Slumbering Sun share the first single from their forthcoming sophomore album today via Invisible Oranges. Hear and share the single “Together Forever” HERE. (And, now on all DSPs.)

Slumbering Sun also plays SXSW on Thursday this week at the annual Stoner Jam.

Hear and share the band’s debut full length The Ever-Living Fire via Bandcamp and Spotify. Watch and share the video for “Dream Snake” via YouTube.

Slumbering Sun is a powerful new melodic doom entity formed by members of underground mainstays Temptress, Destroyer of Light and Monte Luna. Their resulting sound explores broader melodies and sonics than their other bands, inspired as much by Celtic folk standards as by doom, grunge and shoegaze.

Slumbering Sun makes music for crazy romantics. Keegan Kjeldsen, James Clarke, Kelsey Wilson, Garth Condit and Kelly “Penny” Turner joined forces in 2022 in order to weave a dreamy kind of doom that would incorporate shoegaze, grunge and prog. All were friends in the Texas metal scene, assembled from bands in Austin & Dallas, who sought to elevate the love and camaraderie they’d found over the years into an artistic vision.

After releasing their debut, The Ever-Living Fire (2023, #20 debut on Doom Charts), Slumbering Sun played their first show at Stoner Jam during SXSW, embarked on a series of regional tours, and capped off the year with an appearance at Ripple Fest. The band spent all of 2024 making their second effort, Starmony, in between touring the Midwest, and releasing their single “Out of the Blue & Into the Void” — a brilliant mashup of Neil Young’s and Black Sabbath’s classic tracks. With no plans to slow down, and the band intends to make more metalheads than ever pound their fists and cry about their exes.

Starmony will be available on limited edition LP and digital on May 6th, 2025. Orders are available HERE.

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[Thanks to Dave at US / THEM Group.]

Blackwater Holylight announce new EP, “If You Only Knew,” with its first single – “Wandering Lost.”

Blackwater Holylight crafts music that offsets airiness and immediacy. Today [February 26, 2025], the Los Angeles, CA band announces their new EP, If You Only Knew, out April 18, 2025 via Suicide Squeeze Records. Though it clocks in at just four tracks, the EP traverses countless cosmic peaks and sludgy valleys. The band has also shared the single “Wandering Lost,” premiering on FLOOD Magazine, which gradually evolves from atmosphere to heaviness. Over the course of almost seven minutes, metal, shoegaze, and psychedelia coalesce. The song was slowly conceptualized while Blackwater Holylight was working with acclaimed producer Sonni DiPerri (Animal Collective, DIIV, Suzanne Ciani) in Los Angeles, and mimics the mysterious, sometimes painful chapters of life by shifting between multiple movements. Like all of Blackwater Holylight’s material, there is an ample dose of beauty to be found beneath “Wandering Lost”‘s snarling exterior.

On “Wandering Lost,” singer, guitarist, and bassist Sunny Faris shares: “‘Wandering Lost’ came to us in pieces throughout a handful of weeks in Los Angeles. The four of us intentionally wanted this song to have multiple parts to tell a story that takes you on a journey throughout. This song is very special to us because it represents us as musicians individually and is a perfect reflection of what we’ve created as a group. It’s a song about wandering through the chapters of life, curiosity, and the connection we all have to each other through the unknown of how it will all unfold.”

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[Thanks to Andi at Terrorbird Media.]

Review: The Death Wheelers – The Ecstasy of Möld

First, I need to give The Death Wheelers a thumbs-up for the Ennio Morricone joke with titling their new album The Ecstasy of Möld. The Death Wheelers are big fans of cult films and cinema in general, and the riff on Morricone’s classic “The Ecstasy of Gold” from The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly is brilliant.

As is the album. Opening with the short but heavy “Loud Pipes Take Lives,” and a man declaring he’ll purify the world with blood, the album lets you know right away that this is going to be a wild ride. Need further evidence? Well, the thrash metal banger “Homicycle Maniac” (which my computer’s autocorrect wants to write as “Hemicycle Maniac,” which works just as well) will convince you. “Hella Hammered” continues the thrash metal shredding, proclaiming that the motorcycle gang of the band’s moniker are a “bunch of real psychopaths.”

“Un Pneu Dans La Tombe — Aide Musicale À Mourir” dips a bit into psychedelia before it turns into a riff-raging rocker. The title track claims “There is only one ecstasy…Death!” and then launches into pounding punk rock. “Blood, Bikes and Barbiturates” has more heavy cymbal crashes than I could count.

“Bleu Nuit (Les Plaisirs De La Chair)” is one of the trippiest tracks on the record as the band goes looking for pleasures “more primitive” than what you’d find in a strip club. The groove on it is top-notch. The distortion and reverb are cranked on “Way of the Road” for you and your neighbor’s enjoyment (and don’t miss the salute to Led Zeppelin in it).

“The Heretic Rites of Count Choppula,” apart from having a great title, adds touches of horror-surf rock to the album that show another side of The Death Wheelers you didn’t expect at first, but think, “Oh yeah, that tracks.” when you hear it. Finally, “Get Laid…to Rest” ends the album on a Pink Floyd-like mind trip to give your brain a chance to reset after all the chaos you just heard.

It’s another fine instrumental rocket blast from The Death Wheelers. Get in on this roadtrip or get the hell out of the way.

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[I might reach ecstasy if you finally subscribe today.]

[Thanks to Daniel at RidingEasy Records.]

Verbian share “Não vai o Diabo Tecê-las” from upcoming album.

Porto, PT trio Verbian shares the first single from their forthcoming new album on Lost Future Records, Casarder today via Decibel Magazine. Hear and share “Não vai o Diabo Tecê-las” HERE. (Direct on all DSPs HERE.)

Heavy Blog is Heavy recently launched the official video for “Não vai o Diabo Tecê-las” which features an impressive live-in-studio version of the song HERE. (Direct YouTube.)

Verbian understands that evolution is essential to heavy music. And so is commitment to revealing profound emotions and letting artistic expression take your music wherever you dare to go.

“Casarder speaks a little about the insecurities of artistic expression and personal exposure when it comes to fearing being judged for something that is somewhat outside of what is done in each artist’s niche,” the band explains. “This was the theme that also inspired the album cover.”

The distorted, anxious and surrealist visual style of the album’s cover art (see below, painted by artist Madalena Pinta) speaks perfectly to the album’s direct albeit melted psychedelic electronic post-metal. Riff after riff comes and goes, never wearing out its welcome, and instead pulling listeners along on a sonic journey through Salvador Dali landscapes of rock forms, pulled apart and reconfigured into mesmerizing new ones. The mostly instrumental album never lingers on a part too long, never wastes a note. It’s angry, driving and multilayered without sounding overly technical or indulgent.

Since their founding in 2015, the Porto, Portugal band’s music has continued to push forward and fuse genres from metal, rock, electronic, experimental percussion and more into a concise, powerful sound. Guitarist/keyboardist/vocalist Vasco Reis was originally joined by drummer Filipe Romariz, with bassist/keyboardist/vocalist Alexandre Silva joining in 2017 to solidify the trio. Following Romariz’s departure in 2022, drummer/percussionist Guilherme Gonçalves brought an evermore hard-hitting feel to Verbian’s sound.

Verbian’s 2019 self-released debut album JAEZ was followed in 2021 by Irrupção on Italy’s Antigony Records. Despite the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, Verbian showcased Irrupção at venues like the Hard Club (Porto) and toured cities including Braga, Viana do Castelo, Santiago de Compostela, and Aveiro. Upon Gonçalves joining the lineup in 2022, the band toured cities like Toulouse, Clermont-Ferrand, Santander, and at the Romaria Cultural in Gouveia. They concluded the year with an Iberian tour alongside Catalan band Syberia, visiting Vigo, Porto, and Coruña.

Casarder was recorded with a different approach from their previous efforts. Produced by Verbian and Daniel Valente, the trio did all of the preproduction in the studio, live. “We then built a tempo map and after that we did overdubs,” the band explains. “But the biggest difference was that these were the first songs we wrote with Guilherme on the drums and we believe that is why it’s so different from the previous albums. He brought a new and fresh groove to our music, maintaining the heaviness.”

Casarder will be available on Limited Edition LP and download on March 21st, 2025 via Lost Future Records. Pre-orders are available HERE.

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[Thanks to Dave at US / THEM Group.]

Bonnie Trash unleash “Hellmouth” from their upcoming album due February 28, 2025.

Today Guelph, Ontario hell-raisers Bonnie Trash share a new single and video, taken from their forthcoming new album, Mourning You, which is set for release on February 28th on Hand Drawn Dracula.

Mourning You finds Bonnie Trash, twins Emmalia & Sarafina Bortolon-Vettor, embracing a newfound sense of urgency. The album is, put bluntly, an album about death. Not death in the macabre, violent, or outrageous sense, but death as you or I might know it. A spectre lurking around the corner. Capricious, indiscriminate, and unexpected. Ordinary and all the more terrifying for it. Real. Fear in the eyes of a loved one about to die, and the fear in your eyes – staring back. This is sorrow not as a lingering bruise, but a gushing wound.

Following previous single, “Veil of Greed”, today they share the howling, urgent new track “Hellmouth“ – a song that evokes the gnarled claw of remorse gripping you in twilight’s terror. “I see you in my dreams every night,” Sarafina intones. Were it not for Emmalia’s blown-out Stratocaster, you might mistake those words for the chorus of an old doo-wop standard. The track launches off as a woozy siren song, before pummeling you with anthemic power chords for Sarafina’s self lacerating chorus: “Drag me to hell and back I go.”

“Every reminder of what once was, feels like a sharp sword” the band comment. “But, even in the darkest moments, there’s always a path towards love. Remembering the warmth of their smile, as you scrape your nails towards the surface…”

“Hellmouth” video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEPFUHNzbrk
‘Mourning You’ album pre-order/pre-save links: https://ffm.to/mourningyou

A lifelong project christened in 2017 with the release of Ezzelini’s Dead, the band’s debut EP which found the pair mining the Trevisan dialect and archaic Italian folklore of their heritage to grisly effect. Where their first full length, Malocchio (2022), shrouded Bonnie Trash’s nightmares in dusky dreamlike reverb, ‘Mourning You’ is vivid and immediate. Emboldened by the addition of Emma Howarth-Withers on bass and Dana Bellamy on drums – whose thunderous rhythms sharpened 2024’s My Love Remains the Same EP into a fine-edged blade – Mourning You is less a post-mortem fantasia than a sudden, swift dagger to the heart.

Sarafina, the band’s singer and lyricist, has described the album as being about “losing someone you love. It’s about the horrors of grief, haunting you every day.” Inspired, largely, by the passing of Nonna Maria – who provided interstitial narration across the band’s early work – it’s these intimate details which render the songs on Mourning You so devastating. The record explores love and grief as kindred spirits. Grief as love with nowhere to go. Love determined by the fear of its loss. A blood pact. A life for a life. The gnarled claw of remorse gripping you in twilight’s terror.

Though inspired by the shocking iconography of horror shows, slasher flicks, and psychological thrillers, Bonnie Trash turns cinematic tropes on their head. Rather than fashioning nightmares into reality, the band paints reality as a nightmare, rife with pain, suffering, and gothic theatre. Bonnie Trash understands that everyday atrocities haunt the periphery of our lives. A black cloud looming on the edge of our vision. Curses abound. You can’t ward them off. You’d best make an unholy racket.

Mourning You is out February 28, 2025 on Hand Drawn Dracula. In mourning, all is lost.

Bonnie Trash live dates:
Feb 27 – Toronto, ON – Wavelength Winter Fest w/ The OBGMs, pHoenix Pagliacci, Cadence Weapon
Mar 01 – Guelph, ON – ArtBar
Mar 08 – Kitchener, ON – The Union

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[Thanks to Kate at Stereo Sanctity.]

Venamoris covers Scorpions’ “Animal Magnetism” for their newest single.

Venamoris, the heavy, brooding noir outfit who blend darkwave and metal, featuring Paula and Dave Lombardo, release their sophomore album, To Cross or To Burn, on Feb. 28 via Ipecac Recordings.

Alongside the album announcement, Venamoris unveil “Animal Magnetism,” a striking cover of Scorpions’ 1980 love song. The haunting rendition features a guest appearance from Dave’s former bandmate, Gary Holt (Exodus, Slayer). The song is accompanied by a Displaced/Replaced created video.

Dave reflects on the personal significance of including “Animal Magnetism” on To Cross or To Burn:

“The first rock concert I ever attended was on May 25, 1980, with Scorpions opening for Ted Nugent’s ‘Scream Dream’ tour. We (Slayer) had covered a couple Scorpions songs in the early years but I never would have thought of re-imagining one of their songs at that time. Now it seems like the most natural thing to do. I could hear Paula’s sultry voice, the song taking on a slightly industrial feel… and I could fully hear Gary Holt play this insane lead. It’s been incredible to see this idea come to life. To release this at the same time this iconic band celebrates 60 years is a perfect way for me to thank them for an inspiring first show in 1980 and for all that they have contributed since.”

The married duo teased To Cross or To Burn’s 2025 arrival with the 2024 singles “In The Shadows” and “Spiderweb,” which were praised for their unique sound – described by Consequence as “trip-hop style” fused with “the dark/folk metal of Emma Ruth Rundle and Chelsea Wolfe,” while Revolver has described the pair as “spellbinding.”

Paula, who wrote the album’s nine-original songs, offers insight into the album:

“To Cross or To Burn has taken us down a darker, very different path than our first album. There’s a confidence in this body of work. An overall vibe of heaviness that was unexpected. Verses of hard truths now bound in acceptance. The soul-searching continues.”

To Cross or To Burn is available for pre-order now with the collection available digitally, on CD and on both white and limited-edition red vinyl: https://venamoris.lnk.to/cross.

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[Thanks to Monica at Speakeasy PR.]