Diaries of Doom

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...

Rugby metallers Wounded Cross originally formed in 2014, releasing the Bonecrusher EP a year later. Known as 'Groovy Stoner Thrash Doom Metal', they'd play on the live circuit several times over the mid-tens before going quiet in 2017. The full-length Our Future Is Dead album followed in 2020, the band's final recordings at the time. Now, their latest single indicates that there's been a dormant giant in Warwickshire for the last few years. Sounding very different to the 80s heavy rock stylings of Wounded Cross of old, the band sound focussed, more modern and boast their strongest songwriting to date. It's a rebirth in every sense of the word. An ominous clean guitar-led intro sets the scene, with some bass guitar and piano work nicely layering over the top to create an atmosphere early on. Finally, the song powerfully explodes with a cool drum pattern and some guitar chugs to really draw the suspense out of every note. As far as intros go, it ticks all the ...

  Nottinghamshire rockers SYNCOLIMA have announced details of their second album, titled 'Wavelengths' . After a busy 2022, which took Syncolima to Breaking Bands, Mangata, Wildfire, Uprising and Bloodstock Festivals, the reverends of the riff have today announced that 'Wavelengths' will be released on April 14th. Following on from their first album, released in the autumn of 2021,  the new record continues to take on a wide range of musical influences, though Syncolima experiment with heavier tones and riffs across many of the tracks. The title track and first album single, on the other hand, shows Sycolima at their most cosmic and spacey, before bringing back the heaviness for a killer outro. Watch it below:  Over the next few months, Syncolima's live dates include: 10/02/23 - The Flapper, Birmingham 18/02/23 - The Fenton, Leeds 25/02/23 - Pentre Fest, Pentre 02/03/23 - The Hive, Rotherham 04/03/23 - The Chameleon, Nottingham 14/04/23 - The Old Cold Store, Notting...

Pelugion, who have been active for around ten years, have impressed with their first couple of releases. The heavy rocking '1' preceded the darker, doomier '2' from just short of two years ago, which I lent my thoughts to in this review . Over the last decade, they've built their reputation steadily but surely, with convincing and reliable live performances. A tight unit of hard-hitting drums, dense sludge-grunge riffing and Chris Cornell-reminiscent vocals that make the hairs stand up on the back of your neck, you don't just forget about Pelugion after you come across them. Most notably, they appeared on Bloodstock's New Blood Stage as Coventry Metal 2 The Masses winners in 2018. They're coming back for more on Sunday morning. Pelugion interview outside Scruffy Murphy's in 2019. Yes, I'm interviewing them in the back of a car. In what will promise to be a big week for the Coventry-based trio, they're also releasing the tantalising new singl...

Puresonic Outcasts have finally dropped their long-awaited second EP. The heavy/stoner metallers turn up their amps, downtune their axes and introduce a much heavier era for the band with Endless Contemplation , a six-song selection of some of the finest riffs in Northern Ireland. Indeed, this is a release that worships the power of The Riff™. In a similar vein to 2020's Reflections Upon This Present Condition , they've got stoned-out jams and fuzz-heavy guitar passages that tread the path first laid out by Black Sabbath over fifty years ago. Two of the six are solely instrumental tracks, with their riff worship and creation of atmosphere leading these songs. For example, 'Mudlarker' has an Orion-style, psychedelic bass intro, with a buildup in intensity and atmosphere that reminds me a little of 'Chasing Shadows' from eighteen months ago ( more about that here ), culminating into a Candlemass-like doom metal finish. I've said it before - PSO are absolute m...

Coventry metallers Chaplain released A Disgusting View of Humanity two years ago, but couldn't have been more unlucky with the timing, unleashing it in March 2020 as the world closed its doors for what felt like could be forever at the time. As the world's opened up again, they've re-established themselves on the death metal and extreme metal live circuit, and if you've caught them in a sweaty, beer-stained live room lately, you might recognise this new one. Chaplain are a death metal band to my ears, but that's a simple way of looking at it. They fearlessly do their own thing, with influences from doom and bouncy groove metal. Their focus is more on simple, catchy and powerful bangers than the pursuit of mind-blowing technicality or playing the fastest. It's refreshing, really, who knew extreme could be fun as well? Utopia crawls in with a slinky riff before a rolling snare, earth-moving scream and a bass drop introduces a verse full of swagger and attitude. Th...

Five years into their career, Hertfordshire heavies Ritual release their second EP this week. We last heard from Ritual with their 2019 release Operation Copacabana and the Punch-Drunk Blues . Enigma continues the narrative from the previous EP, which reimagined and extrapolated on the song by Barry Manilow. In a very loose way, Enigma continues this story by following the antagonist's trial, execution and descent to hell following a murderous crime of passion. Written before the world shut its doors two years ago, Ritual weren't able to release Enigma as intended, yet the band played this to their advantage. While refining what they already had, the band decided to embellish the songs with guest appearances. ”We thought about what we felt the songs were missing and identified people who we’d ideally like to perform the parts", they explain. Fortunately, their dream musicians weren't touring 'as normal' and were able to lend a helping hand or two (or severa...

Northern Ireland's Puresonic Outcasts return with a vengeful new single, ahead of an upcoming six-song EP. 2020's 'Reflections On This Present Condition' introduced the quartet to the world, before 'Demonised Masses' and 'Chasing Shadows' came out in the second half of that year. These singles saw PSO step the heaviness up a notch with thrashy chugging, clearly evolving from the stoner-punk style of their first EP. 'Desecration' is another step in this direction, with their heaviest material to date... You can just tell that this new release will be an absolute corker. A short burst of feedback gives way to a vicious guitar riff, setting the scene as the Outcasts jam out over it. It threatens to snap your head clean from its neck as you listen along. As they drop into a simpler, punk-infused section that has flavourings of Slayer around the late '80s, Martin's snarling vocals sound more savage and guttural than they ever have done, matchi...

Another new track from Puresonic Outcasts in what’s been a busy year (despite everything going on in 2020), ‘Chasing Shadows’ is an instrumental that still manages to show off their songwriting chops and sense of atmosphere. If you don’t know who PSO are, you can read about them in my last review of theirs ( at this link ) – it’s only been a month since ‘Demonised Masses’ came out.  A bass-led intro opens the track amid an ominous wind effect. It gives the opening a calm tranquillity, but with a clear sense that it’s building up to something. The tension is certainly psychedelic, with a desert rock-style quality to it.  There are no distorted guitars until almost two minutes in, and upon their arrival you hear them grind away under the same pattern as if a sleeping giant is about to wake. And when the giant finally awakens, PSO unleash a headbang-y riff that grooves like early 90s Pantera, but has the trippy atmosphere of bands such as Tool. This song is clever for the way tha...

50 years ago, something magical happened. Utterly beyond the realms of what was thought possible or probably, four blokes from Aston, Birmingham, were set to change the world forever. Reeling off of the energy of a debut album that introduced a fresh face of musical evil to the world, Bill Ward, Geezer Butler, Ozzy Osbourne, and Tony Iommi set about writing what would become an inimitable cornerstone of music culture. They took an honest look at the world around them, and committed their feelings to record. The result is an album of devilishly ferocious highs, and brooding, often insidious lows, with expertly crafted songs weaving through lyrical themes of drug use, and a strong anti-war sentiment. Paranoid, the album that is beloved by the everyone: elitist doom metal drones, the old guard who can remember the year 1970 (we're a young writing team), and everyone in between. Is it doom? Is it Dad Rock? Yes. It's nothing short of brilliant. Join us (Matt, Joe, and Jack) as we pi...

Vaevictis is the brainchild of Josh Cureton, a talented multi-instrumentalist from Birmingham. He is an experienced musician, well known in the Birmingham metal scene for his hard hitting in Christgrinder and Womenowar. This solo project combines various styles of rock and metal with no holds barred, featuring many talented guest musicians and detailed compositions.   Vaevictis’ upcoming EP “A Means To The End” comes out on July 3rd 2020. All instruments are performed by Josh himself, with guest vocals from Jack Traveller (also of Christgrinder). Recorded at Josh’s Birmingham studio, it has been mixed by Phil Whitehouse and mastered by Matt Jones. The second single from the upcoming EP is the commanding ‘The March To Salvation’. What a march it is. Straight away, heavy distorted guitars surround you and pull you in. The punchy main riff arrives and you can’t help but nod your head in time with it. A mix of clean and heavy fry vocals come into play, giving light and shade to the son...

Today marks the 10 year anniversary of the sad day on which the metal world lost a true legend: Ronnie James Dio. His trademark voice and fantasy lyrics have left a lasting impression on the Metal community and have influenced countless metal musicians. To pay tribute to a true icon, Ben and Matt have come up with a list of the Top 20 Dio Classics:  20. The Last in Line Dio goes into epic territory for The Last in Line, an incredibly well-executed semi-ballad. The title track from his sophomore album, it curiously won a Grammy for Best Metal Performance 31 years later when Tenacious D covered it. MN 19.   Starstruck If you’re aware of the performance of this song from Dio’s 1983 set at Donnington, you’ll know exactly why I had to include it. If you’re not aware, best you watch the video below... BP 18.   Long Live Rock'n'Roll Well said, sir! Have a place in this list. 17. Double the Pain Is this the heaviest riff fr...