Diaries of Doom

And the mysterious haze has just about left Camden with another Desertfest gone until next year. For three days, London worshipped the power of The Riff. Here's how it went! FRIDAY One of the first bands on at The Dev on Friday were Yorkshire riffmongers Ironrat , who completely pack out the venue around teatime. The snarling, high-octane 'Liar' opens proceedings at full throttle to get fists pumping and arses shaking before the progressive 'Tip Of My Tongue' keeps the flow and shows their versatility with sludgy gutpunches, thumping blues riffs and a meditative bass guitar break (all in one track). Their low-tuned grooves are as heavy as anything and move the whole room, and although there's a sense of melancholy in some of their vocal melodies Ironrat still really bring a party vibe to the festival, led by Martin's charismatic frontmanship. Amid psychedelic leads, sludgy power, and twin guitar harmonies, Ironrat don't reinvent the wheel. Instead, they ...

Joel H Bulsara is a Yorkshire-based musician with his first solo album hot off the press. The vocalist of Leeds groove metal force Ireosis, as well as the man behind the trap-inspired Vilitigo. project, and formerly of stoner doomsters (The) Sound Of Origin, he already boasts an impressive musical CV (heavily condensed into one line here). So, where does his new project as JHB sit? Hastur The King seems to mostly act as the spiritual successor to (The) Sound Of Origin, with its heavy leanings into riff-worshipping stoner and doom metal. However, as the lyricist, composer, producer and engineer, performing every instrument, this is far more than the logical next step of an old band. Hastur The King is brought together with occult themes, and a hell of a lot of soul poured into the effort. Conceptually, Hastur The King handles Lovecraftian horror and the occult. This is apparent in song titles such as The Tarot or Mandelbrot Madness (The Musical) - which, in very simple and half-expl...

Desertfest London is a bit like Christmas for British people of a certain musical persuasion. It comes once a year, and you spend most of it drunk with the family. Instead of music about decking the halls or reindeer, though, you're more likely to catch someone singing ‘N.I.B.’ or claiming to be Iron Man after hours at The Black Heart. And instead of a traditional roast dinner, you've got virtually the entire world's cuisine within a stone's throw in the Camden markets. I first went in 2017 for the day to see Sleep, then started doing the full weekend every year from 2022 onwards. By now, it's booked into the calendar as soon as the dates are announced. This year will be my second time covering the event for Diaries of Doom and my third time as an artist (more on that later), which I'm very grateful for. If you see something on the merch table that catches your eye, consider doing without the next couple of beers and grabbing it there and then. It's one of t...

Hail Satan, Triumph Awaits! It's a fitting title for Tumanduumband's second full-length, self-released today. With horror movie samples littered throughout and crushing doom metal riffs, it's a dark, unsettling listening experience. Spinning this album must be a bit like having a bad trip while Electric Wizard and cult classics play in the background, very, very slowly. The Stourbridge-based doom duo released Throne of Grief shortly before Halloween 2023, backed up by a busy touring schedule in the UK where Luke and Scott delivered, and continue to deliver, a simple but effective cocktail of bass, drums, riffs, fuzz, skulls, blood and Satan to whichever venue that has the stones to let them through their doors. With no vocals, no guitars, no solos, and no fucking about, their core aim of bringing doom down to its simplest, most skull-caving, most fundamental form has remained true, and Hail Satan, Triumph Awaits very much carries on down that path. Bigger, scarier, and lon...

Tusks up! Bradfordian stoner doom titans Son of Boar return this week with the storming new single U.F.O. Son of Boar are on fine form with their first new track since Satanic Panic (Revelations) a couple of years ago. No less than twelve minutes of monolithic riff worship, to put it bluntly, it's spacey and heavy as fuck throughout and doesn't so much announce their return but scream it from the top of a mountain. A holy mountain, perhaps. In the band's own words, U.F.O. is a vagabond’s tale of fungal experimentation. The song seeks to take listeners on a journey through the honest retelling of youthful exploration, while channelling feelings of impending doom, confusion, and wonder. Producer Kurt Wood has helped the band find and focus their sound, delivering cacophonous drums from Luke Doran, paired with the thunder-flow of Gaz Bates' bass playing. Both form the sturdy foundations upon which a wall of guitar sounds is built by Lyndon Birchall and Adam Waddell, all ...

At War With The Sun will drop their newest EP Remembrance on 12th September 2025. It's hench, it's miserable, it's funeral doom as fuck - if you like it crushingly low, slow and heavy, then this one's for you! This EP will be released digitally and as a digipak, with artwork sombrely created by the band themselves. At War With The Sun are an atmospheric funeral doom metal power trio hailing from the bleakest parts of Worcestershire, coming together to create droning, sludgy soundscapes to draw the light out of a room for fans of Thou, Neurosis and Khanate. Expect a procession of battering-ram heavy, hook laden palm-muted riffs interspersed with sad instrumental passages and full-on funeral doom sections ranging from 40-60 BPM. Add in a subtle dose of psychedelia and the end result is a sound which is fresh while remaining resolutely old school in its approach. Remembrance was produced by Pete MacBeth at Studio 58, Herefordshire. Tour dates: 14th September - Wor...

  Amongst the finest, doomiest power trios to come out of Nottinghamshire are Master Charger, who return this week with their first full length since Origin of the Lugubrious from the summer of 2020, following on from 2023's ripping Social Witch Hunt single. Posthumous Resurrection picks up where they'd left off, following in the footsteps of the 70s heavy rock/heavy blues overlords that built the path to stoner, doom and sludge, with low-tuned vintage riffs and an almighty fuzzy heaviness that threatens to crush your skull. A swirling, crashing drum intro sees in Thy Kingdom Polluted , a doom n' groove rager. It's led by a cool, nostalgic lead guitar lick early on, nodding to the greats of psychedelic music, before the band settle into a sludgy rager. John James' throat-shredding vocals carry his trademark intense grit before a guitar solo drenched in wah takes over nearer to the end. It's a powerful way to start the album ahead of the slightly Melvins-y Onl...

Ascendancy Promotions bought Doom Over Birmingham to the Midlands in March, setting a murky atmosphere over The Flapper with a varied lineup that had much to offer for fans of the low and slow. Drawing an impressive crowd in Birmingham as the clear result of hard work promoting the show, the room is full of people very early on in the evening, with the whole event genuinely feeling like the place to be for supporters of underground live music. After openers Suffering, my first band of the night was Tumanduumband , who I've seen many times over the years. Flanked by corpses onstage and with a Satanic aesthetic, they get heads nodding away in rhythm with their dark, hazy doom metal. With setlist staples like Throne Of Grief and Dread Lord shaking the venue's foundations, they know how to use the simple power of the riff to devastating effect, using just a bass guitar and a drum kit to deconstruct doom down to its very core. They're followed by the elegant, dramatic funeral...

Hello! It's been a while since I've posted on here. I'd been thinking about how to bring this blog back for a while, doing a bit of strategising with others, and then after a confidence boost a few weeks ago I'm feeling more motivated to get back on here, writing about the music I'm hearing. Anyway, 2025 has started brightly and I've wrapped my ears around some good new music already. Here's three tracks that may have gone over your heads (and ears) if you like Sabbathy, riffy goodness, as many of this blog's followers do as well. Earl Of Hell - The Infernal Dream The first single from the Edinburgh-based quintet's upcoming album, due on April 25th via Copper Feast records, Earl Of Hell have opened their new chapter on a strong note. The Infernal Dream 's dissonant, chugging intro is reminiscent of early Mastodon, but with a much more laid back and stoned-out atmosphere than the frenetic hurtlings through the void found on Remission and the ...

I was there the night Slump was born - some people (me) would even say that the band was my idea… May 2018, Munich: vocalist/guitarist Matt Noble and I had just been to Sleep (the band, not the act) and were continuing to drink in the bedroom of his tiny student flat, near the top of a Brutalist tower block. Matt drunkenly confided in me that he was struggling with not being in a regular band - my answer? “Mate, *chugs beer* start your own band” Matt did just that. Now a mainstay on the underground Stoner/Doom/Sludge circuit, it’s been a long time coming to hear new music from the band - 2020’s singles Nothing More and Degenerate seem a very long time ago now, even though the tracks still hold water and bang heads to this day. New music has been due for a long time, but you’ll have to wait a little longer for my opinion on these two new tracks, because Slump aren’t the only band with a track on this split EP… Worcester-based Sludge-mongers At War With The Sun kick things off in s...

On this day 50 years ago, Black Sabbath released Sabbath Bloody Sabbath on Vertigo I didn't grow up in a household of heavy music, so my first memory of hearing metal is being in my friend's kitchen at around seven years old, at the time when The Osbournes was on the telly. I didn't know what Black Sabbath or metal was back then, but I picked up on a couple of earworms that turned out to be Sabbath songs later down the line. Fast forward to the age of 13 and I was chatting to an older mate of mine about music. When I told him that I was listening to a lot of Green Day and Kings of Leon, he turned his nose up and told me I should try a bit of Black Sabbath and get into metal. I went to a youth club in my village back then and a few months after that conversation I noticed a CD lying by the player at the end of a night with 'Black Sabbath Greatest Hits' written on the front. I stole it, put it on my mp3 player (showing my generation here) and brought it back the n...