When the albums opens with 'Smokey Robinson', this quintet breaks loose with a pretty unique blend of doom metal, stoner rock and grunge. The songs sets the tone for an interesting album, loaded with Sabbath-riffs, distorted power and a clean but quite disturbed voice. Halfway through 'Mr. O', I'm sure that these guys have been influenced by the likes of the Melvins, Conan and Alice In Chains. There's even a hint of old school hardcore present, which seems correct when I look at their biography and see the name 'Cro-Mags'.
I mentioned that this was one of the fastest doom metal albums and I feel I need to explain that a little. Usually, doom metal is quite slow but Kings Destroy seem to like speeding things up once in a while, resulting in some great songs. Now, don't get me wrong, the riffing clearly pushes this towards bands like Black Sabbath, Candlemass, Trouble and, why not, Yob. Those riffs are brilliant, old school, heavy and highly immersive. 'Mythomania (Maharaja)' for instance, firmly pushes this back into the occult sound of the late seventies.
The grunge reference mainly comes from the vocals. They have this eerie, gritty and rough approach which might take getting used to. They certianly sound different from most doom vocalists. For starters, they're clean. There's no grunts, no screams, only these deranged narrations which pierce the music and haunt the listener. They reach a highlight in 'Embers' which quickly becomes my favorite song on the album. This song alone is worth checking out this album.
By the end, halfway through 'Time For War', Kings Destroy blast out their final piece of metallic heaviness in an absolute epic finale. If I wasn't convinced of their abilities earlier, this song certainly did the trick. This is one deranged piece of music which is definitely a must for all you deviant doomers out there. So check it out and grasp the strange atmosphere that these guys have created. You won't be disappointed.
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