ZEBULON – Come Day of Reckoning

RELEASE YEAR: 2025
BAND URL: https://zebulondoom.bandcamp.com/album/come-day-of-reckoning-2

The splendid Norwegian doom metal outfit known as Zebulon unleashed this musically dynamic force of nature just a couple of weeks ago, and there is an exciting and emotive edge as well as heaps of gloom to the 6-track effort, which sports the evocative title Come Day of Reckoning, reflecting its thematization of faith and judgement. What could be more doom metal than that?!

When the mood calls for crushing heaviness, epic and brooding vocals that howl out in yearning, and a verdant strain of focused melancholy, look no further than this evocative disc. The LP strikes a near-perfect balance between grit and grandeur, and each song displays the group’s melodic sensibilities superbly. Darkness colors every aspect of this release yet it feels vivid and diverse, and it comes across as neither tediously oppressive nor frustratingly predictable as many other releases belonging to the genre do. Towering and adventurous pieces such as “Headstone” and album closer “Deathless” contain just the right amount of drama, fury, and angst. Funnily, a few riffs and ideas recall Die Healing by Saint Vitus, but probably more due to the aura they conjure up more than anything else.     

This intriguing quintet hailing from Jæren in Rogaland has impressed this scribe greatly by means of this utterly robust and muscular-sounding opus, and although it undoubtedly classifies as a doom metal offering, it feels different and original to pretty much everything else out there. Or to phrase that differently, there is a haunting and soulful quality to its content that resists any resemblance to other acts, and what we have here is simply an accessible and captivating debut record that delivers thunder, passion, and raw emotion.