Review Summary: Another up-and-coming doom band who push the genre's limitations even further.
Doom metal appears to be waking from a slumber over the past year or so. While experienced bands like Candlemass, Conan and SubRosa continue to storm ahead, content at doing what they do best, numerous fresh doom bands are surfacing and following in their master’s trodden footsteps towards imminent success. Darkher and Sinistro have both proven capable of simultaneously melting and freezing your heart, and Boss Keloid and King Goat have ground the weight of doom with the depth of stoner rock, with engrossing highs.
Birmingham’s Kroh is the latest doom outfit that has risen from the depths of the UK underworld, where they’ve been lurking for just over 5 years. Initially formed as a duet by ex Anaal Nathrakh live bassist, Paul Kenney, Kroh released a self-titled debut in 2011 which flew by relatively unnoticed, and the band subsequently disbanded in 2013. Two years later, they have returned with a reshaped line-up and a sophomore album, “Altars”, that cuts deep enough to leave scars.
Numerous doom bands decide that because their music is so weighty the lumbering pace should match the feelings they are expressing, resulting in extended song durations that seem to last an eternity. The nine songs on “Altars” are considerably shorter than a stereotypical doom song; averaging at about 5 minutes each. This approach makes this album digestible and keeps your interest orbiting around the distortion’s gravitational pull.
Furthermore, Kroh stuffs a considerable amount of drama into these shorter songs. The cyclic chanting on ‘Living Water’ relies on sacrilegious tenor, united with marching drums to create an imposing sense of dread. Other songs, such as ‘Malady’ and ‘Cold’ focus specifically on manifesting a chilly, mysterious and uncertain atmosphere. Both include warping distortion and simplistic instrumentation to create a hazy and deluded feeling, and the latter focuses on a narrative singing approach which details some typical doom lyricism: the decay of humanity and world collapse.
New vocalist, Oliwia Sobieszek, sounds so comfortably commanding with her singing on “Altars”. Her weeping laments and effortlessly powerful cries during ‘Mother Serpent’ combine perfectly with Kenney’s guitars to create a majestic chorus. By adopting ghostly wails that are often isolated or echoed in the mix, her alluring voice enhances the sense of mystery that Kroh emits throughout the album to develop an aura of pure solitude. While Oliwia steals the show, it’s impossible not to notice Kenney’s heavily distorted guitars. They slither from painful clawing notes to spiteful riffing, like on ‘Feed the Brain’ and ‘Stone into Flesh’; the latter sounding like Slayer as performed by a dying sloth.
Technically, this isn’t Kroh’s debut album. Nevertheless, it does illustrate their gifted abilities in a far more powerful and captivating way than their actual debut. Thanks to talented bands like Kroh, the scope of what doom metal is becoming broadens with any album released which underlines the same characteristic “Altars” does: expansion.
