caveman battle doom
Let's start this review with a little anecdote. Just now, while I was listening to this album for the first time, my wife walked in. "A new Conan album?", she asked. I nodded. My wife likes doom metal but, like many people, she can't tell Dopethrone from Yob or Cathedral from Saint Vitus. In fact, she knows only a few bands' sound very well, bands like Bathsheba, My Dying Bride, Type O Negative and Conan. I think that pretty much explains all there is to know about 'Existential Void Guardian'. It is a Conan album, one loaded with fuzz, aggression, power and more fuzz. It's a steamroller, a monolithic tsunami of riffs and a crushing example of Conan's typical sound.
And what better way to start such an album than with the pulverising 'Prosper On The Path'. Here, Conan immediately sets the demons free. The sludge metal oozes out of my speakers with great vengeance. Slow, crushing and impending, this is the Conan we all know and love. From then on, we're on a barbaric journey in seven new tracks. They all have the same character, one that will drone you out of your own flesh if played loud enough. The only exception is 'Paincantation', a short but vigorous crust grind tune that will blast you through the roof of any venue.
I don't think it's easy to pick a favorite track on this album, but my personal preference nudges towards 'Amidst The Infinite'. Surfing on the classic Conan sound, this track feels like a blanket made out of Stonehenge monoliths. It's followed by the mid-tempo grinder 'Volt Thrower'. For good reasons this track had been chosen as single. It gives you a perfect taste of things to come. In fact, it somewhat reminds me of Winter, another one of my all-time favorites in the doom metal sector.
'Vexxagon' will give many doomers a hard-on, no doubt about that. It's another one of my favorites here, an epic and genre defining example of sludge doom. It's another one of those Conan track that keeps on ramming, pounding and pummeling until the listener is three feet deep in a swamp of fuzz and misery. But don't worry, by the end you can crawl out of your hole and enjoy closer 'Eternal Silent Legend', which - unsurprisingly perhaps - is everything but silent. Legend? Absolutely, along with the other tracks, this one cements Conan's legacy.
So, while my wife is back in the garden and the houseplants are sliding off the shelves, I'll end this review by recommending this album to all doomers and sludgers. Fans of Conan can easily trust the trio to deliver the goods again and who knows, perhaps another wave of fans will now appear. Conan = legend, no doubt about that, and this album simply proves that.
Serge
And what better way to start such an album than with the pulverising 'Prosper On The Path'. Here, Conan immediately sets the demons free. The sludge metal oozes out of my speakers with great vengeance. Slow, crushing and impending, this is the Conan we all know and love. From then on, we're on a barbaric journey in seven new tracks. They all have the same character, one that will drone you out of your own flesh if played loud enough. The only exception is 'Paincantation', a short but vigorous crust grind tune that will blast you through the roof of any venue.
I don't think it's easy to pick a favorite track on this album, but my personal preference nudges towards 'Amidst The Infinite'. Surfing on the classic Conan sound, this track feels like a blanket made out of Stonehenge monoliths. It's followed by the mid-tempo grinder 'Volt Thrower'. For good reasons this track had been chosen as single. It gives you a perfect taste of things to come. In fact, it somewhat reminds me of Winter, another one of my all-time favorites in the doom metal sector.
'Vexxagon' will give many doomers a hard-on, no doubt about that. It's another one of my favorites here, an epic and genre defining example of sludge doom. It's another one of those Conan track that keeps on ramming, pounding and pummeling until the listener is three feet deep in a swamp of fuzz and misery. But don't worry, by the end you can crawl out of your hole and enjoy closer 'Eternal Silent Legend', which - unsurprisingly perhaps - is everything but silent. Legend? Absolutely, along with the other tracks, this one cements Conan's legacy.
So, while my wife is back in the garden and the houseplants are sliding off the shelves, I'll end this review by recommending this album to all doomers and sludgers. Fans of Conan can easily trust the trio to deliver the goods again and who knows, perhaps another wave of fans will now appear. Conan = legend, no doubt about that, and this album simply proves that.
Serge
