ANGUISH – Mountain
- by Matt Coe
- Posted on 16-01-2015
Doom metal – the slow, deep tempos and crawling riffs of down-tuned escape, it’s an immortal sound developed from heavy metal’s early dawn through Black Sabbath. Active since 2007, Sweden’s Anguish keep the time honored classic doom metal style alive and thriving on their second full-length "Mountain". 7 full songs plus a short intro allows the quartet to explore a familiar Candlemass oriented platform – semi-classical touches filter into "Master of Peak’s Fall" and the lumbering 8 minute plus "Void", but the vocals of bassist J. Dee are more gravelly and not as melodic as expected.
Evil soloing, underground values, simplified production ethics – Anguish are not going to be mistaken for grabbing any commercial aspirations. Church organs punctuate the rhythms bellowing from closer "Snowhammer", and many will enjoy the slightly up-tempo time change that occurs early on in this epic number, David and Christoffer ringing out sparse notes and dark chord combinations as heavy as mega ton anvil.
Hero worship has its benefits- "Mountain" will appease early Candlemass fans for certain, as long as they can handle more of an extreme/gritty vocal presence.
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