Conan - Blood Eagle
Conan from Liverpool, have produced a genre defining second album in Blood Eagle, that begins to redefine the possibilities and potential offered by doom metal. Alongside the hypnotic slow burn riffs underpinned by the most down tuned guitars you will ever hear; there is bags of melody and great changes of pace, and a creative vision that sees lots of deft musical touches at play.
The opening track Crown of Talons sets the bar high. It's wildly atmospheric and stops you dead in your tracks....as in what the hell is that amazing sound! The main theme is first droned by the guitar alone, sounding like it must have come from somewhere deep below the planets surface. Once the bass and drums launch in, the theme builds in intensity, bringing out lots of subtle musical accents, while never leaving the heavy core behind. The vocals are horribly chilling, conjuring up a disturbing vision of some medieval calamity about to envelop society. An awesome opener to the album.
Total Conquest has some fantastic changes in pace which give a real dynamic feel to the track, accompanied by some fabulous cymbal fills by the drummer Paul O'Neil. It's a really inventive and hypnotic track, with great slabs of heavy riffing at the end. Magnificent!
There are many great tracks before we approach the closer Altar of Grief, but it is really the pinnacle of the ambition of this album. It is simultaneously both harrowing and immersive. The introduction played by battlefield sounding drums against an almost growling guitar sustain, leads into the most powerful bludgeoning guitar chords I suspect you will hear this year on record. The howling vocals and the screaming heaviness of the piece hammer you into sublime submission.
This is a towering and very eerie album, that has singularly convinced this doom metal sceptic of the musical potential of doom within metal. This could easily end up album of the year.