Anguish - Doomkvädet (2021)

Hailing from Sweden, today we have Anguish and their perfectly excruciatingly doomy release “Doomkvädet”. Unleashing a gargantuan slab of 49 minutes of heavy riffs, this outfit has that old-school grittiness that many modern bands lack, prompting comparisons to Candlemass and similar outfit. If you are in the market for traditional Doom Metal with a harsher edge, this is one of those band’s that you will play on repeat.

Opening with the cavernous “Herein I Burn”, the first riff is a perfect foreshadowing of things to come, as it is slow, heavy and twangy. We like the mixture of clean-ish/snarly vocals giving a more aggressive edge versus your traditional Doom clean vocals, particularly on tracks like “Consumed By The Necro Doom”, and “Deranged and Forgotten”. For non-stop headbanging, “I ett dunkel förlorad” and “Blood Veil” are our go-to songs in this release.

The band saved the best for last with the weeping guitar leads of “Our Funeral”, alongside crafty atmospherics and a Funeral Doom kind of vibe, reminding us of bands like Skepticism and Shape of Despair. Overall, “Doomkvädet” is one well crafted release that showcases a great Doom band. While the tracks are engaging and well developed, they are a bit too traditional and some listeners might not fully appreciate them. That being said, Anguish has the chops to appeal to all Doom fans, from both the Classical and more Death/Doom side of the spectrum, and we particularly love them for this.

Label: Sun & Moon Records

Release: August 30th, 2021

Genre: Doom Metal

Country: Sweden