Anguish - Through The Archdemon's Head

Dark Descent Records keep churning out awesome album after awesome album. And whilst I will write about the goodness of the likes of Horrendous and Anhedonist from this year later. I will write about Anguish's debut album 'Through The Archdemon's Head', which is one killer album of filthy doom. But wait! The way it is presented isn't what you usually expect for a doom album.

Okay, I said 'filthy'. Musically it could come across as Candlemass or even early Katatonia.. but much darker, much rawer, rustier and of course, much filthier. I don't even know why I am comparing this to either band, maybe it is because Anguish are also Swedish, but anyway. Even the lead work reminds me a little of early Katatonia. But again, this is no carbon copy as the lead work has a more raw and evil edge to it. The former may have walked the path of sorrow, Anguish walks a similar path, but this one is evil and they are pissed off and will not dwell in sadness like the other two.

Just look at the album cover. Picture that house sitting on its own on a cliff side full of trash. Those evil twin leads and thick, raw riffs plod, catch on at times, and send the clouds to creep over the field and send all the trash away. Sweeping it up into a mini tornado and spilling the trash over the cliffs, leaving that fox head to stand on its own, swaying on the cliff side. Nothing remains here, or if there is, it has turned to ash and been scattered. 

But then, the vocals of J. Dee. They are really interesting, different for this type of sound. They are raw, harsh. Kind of sounds like a cross between Tom Angelripper and Quorthon (Even a bit of Attila comes to mind) but filled with more agony. It almost sounds strained. Even listen to the clean vocals in 'Morbid Castle'. Perhaps the person who lived in that home alone on the cliff side is in fact still alive, but his heart has turned black. He got pissed off with living here, so he decided to pack up his things and drift off somewhere else. Let the hate of your past inspire you to carry on. Maybe he wants to take on the world after the 'Illusive Damnation' and become ruler in his 'Morbid Castle'.

You see, for a doom album, this doesn't crush. It grinds and it slowly squeezes you with a giant rusty clamp. You cannot escape this. It oozes of deep emotion and it will strangle you with passion. This is growing on me at an incredible rate. You know that album you hear every now and then that isn't necessarily anything new in terms of genre, but there is enough in there to make it different to everything else in that genre? This is one of those. This sits right on its own just like the fox head on that wooden pole on the album cover.

I will not call this a future favourite album of all time for me just yet, but in time, it just might well be. What an album!

Ikil