Based in Dartmoor, England, purveyors of crushing doom the Wounded Kings always do an exquisite job of conjuring a grey, oppressive atmosphere, and their fourth full-length, Consolamentum, makes no exception. Replete with thick, Sabbath-esque riffing and burdened with a ponderous, lordly pace, the record takes its time, gradually swelling and blossoming into something stronger than your typical piece of doomy lugubriousness.
It takes a full five minutes for the vocals to kick in on opening track "Gnosis," dialing in a note of smoky, occult mysticism. Soon, the miserable atmosphere splits and bleeds, as a rippling note of psychedelia rips through. Alternating between otherwordly interludes like the strange and shivering "Space Conqueror" and slabs of spacey doom like "Lost Bride" and the title track, the Wounded Kings craft a soundscape that is part coven, part Sci-Fi epic.
While it does not match what is so far the opus of their career, the 2010 ode to fallen civilizations The Shadow Over Atlantis, Consolamentum is another worthy piece of prophetic doom.
(Candlelight)It takes a full five minutes for the vocals to kick in on opening track "Gnosis," dialing in a note of smoky, occult mysticism. Soon, the miserable atmosphere splits and bleeds, as a rippling note of psychedelia rips through. Alternating between otherwordly interludes like the strange and shivering "Space Conqueror" and slabs of spacey doom like "Lost Bride" and the title track, the Wounded Kings craft a soundscape that is part coven, part Sci-Fi epic.
While it does not match what is so far the opus of their career, the 2010 ode to fallen civilizations The Shadow Over Atlantis, Consolamentum is another worthy piece of prophetic doom.