CONAN – Blood Eagle
- by Matt Coe
- Posted on 02-03-2014
UK stoner/ doom metal from the trio Conan, as "Blood Eagle" is their second full-length studio album and first for new label Napalm. The ten minute long "Crown of Talons" opener sets the tone for morose, snail paced tempos topped off with feedback laced guitar and ominous bass plucking as the vocals echo drawn out feelings of misery, frustration, lament, and loss.
Occasionally offering a Sabbath-swing groove track like "Gravity Chasm", the band prefer to beat the psyche into submission through slow anesthesia moments – never knowing when the snare hit will come, or next ringing chord. As the 9:18 "Altar of Grief" brings "Blood Eagle" to a relatively ‘up-tempo’ doom conclusion, those in the know for this genre will cheer, stomp, and clap again and again.
Decent, but I need to be in the right frame of mind to engage with Conan fully.