A
dark, oppressive mist is slowly, very slowly snaking from the waters of the Mersey River
and twisting through the streets of Liverpool;
a gloomy, gothic fog that threatens to overrun the city before setting its
sights on the rest of the world. Not gothic in that cheesy 80’s sense, no, this
is born from bleaker times…a Hammer Horror sense of the gothic, or maybe Poe or
Lovecraft. Imagine the soundtrack to the dark streets of Victorian Whitechapel
where Jack The Ripper plied his evil trade or the sombre atmosphere of Dartmoor where the Hound of The Baskervilles terrorized
the locals.
Black
Magician are the perpetrators of this demonic, nightmarish world as they take
the core foundations of doom metal and twist it into an acrid smoke filled epic
fantasy. Sounding like early Cathedral playing a Hammer Horror soundtrack,
Black Magician take their slothful rhythms and mix in dank, epic riffs with
spine chilling organ sounds that are both integral to the Black Magician’s
wicked rites.
Kicking
off with a minute long, spooky introduction the band pummel into the first
track proper,"Full Plain I See, The Devil Knows How to Row", which introduces us to the band’s murky world
as it grinds through nearly 8 minutes of oppressive yet catchy doom, topped off
with Liam Yates’s tortured vocals before kicking into high gear and thrashing
out to the conclusion like “To Mega Therion” era Celtic Frost. Yates’s vocals
are worthy of note here. It is impossible not to make reference to Lee Dorrian
as Yates plumbs his guttural depths and enunciates his lyrics in a very similar
manner to the Cathedral front man. He does, however succeed in sounding far
more authentic and less cartoonish than Dorrian suiting the music to a tee. An
Ozzy copyist would simply have not cut it here, this is just a step beyond
Sabbath in its vampiric world of horror.
“Four
Thieves Vinegar” is over ten minutes of more glacial, crushing doom that
follows on from where the previous track left off. When Yates intones the words
“Bring Out Your Dead” it sounds for all the world as if the bodies may be
subjected to some nefarious purposes and not given a true Christian burial.
Interestingly the monolithic guitars of Kyle Nesbitt go far beyond mere Sabbath
worship to create a sound that is built far less around simple riffs being
hammered into submission and more around snaking, twisting patterns that circle
back round on themselves to create a recognisable cycle…the effect is almost
symphonic in its scope.
Nesbitt
breaks out the acoustic for “Of Ghosts And Their Worship” which flirts heavily
with pastoral folk without losing the dark occult overtones that feature so
heavily elsewhere in the band’s heavier songs. When the keyboards float in one
can almost envisage Christopher Lee as Lord Summerisle leading the faithful in
a merry dance in The Wicker Man.
Final
track, the fourteen plus minute epic “Chattox” builds slowly from a soft
keyboard intro and some tasteful lead playing from Nesbitt…something which is a
rarity on this album and only used sparingly and effectively. When the doom
kicks in around the three minute mark the track has left of the complexity of
the other tracks here displaying its strength through a much sparser guitar
arrangement that owes more to Celtic Frost’s slower moments than the twisting,
weaving guitar and keyboard interplay they’re displayed elsewhere throughout
the album but to no less mesmeric effect.
The
album may seem short on tracks but it’s certainly not short on length or ideas
and will certainly not leave any dedicated doom fans wanting. Alongside
Undersmile’s “Narwhal” album this is sure to be one of the finest doom releases
issued this year and should see Black Magician’s rise to bigger stages and
higher accolades take a very quick turn. Buy the CD by all means but this album
was mastered by Stone Axe/Mos generator main man Tony Reed to be heard on vinyl
so do yourselves a favour and grab this as a slab of wax first and foremost.
--Ollie
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