November is Doom- Hexjakt : "Blessing of the Damned"

Here is another Scandinavian doom band, this time from Sweden. They are on the more traditional slide of doom with a sludge-driven guitar sound giving them a great deal of heft in the overdriven wall of fuzz they hit you with as the vocals bellow over this. Some call-and-response vocals are bouncing back and forth to show they are putting a little thought into the actual songwriting rather than just riding an immense guitar tone. It feels more forboding than dark in the mood created here. They continue to bulldoze you with the mammoth guitar sound on "Black Circle." The throaty husk of the vocals creates a uniformity of sound as the riff follows a more syncopated groove to break it up a little. They also break things down into a more atmospheric jam that they wander out into.

'Void Throne" carries your typical sludge lumber that has been employed by bands since the late 90s. or longer, depending on who you are referring to in this extension of doom. There is more effort put into the vocals of "Wyrd" though the riff falls along the predictable crunch of the genre, with the guitar solo offering the most melody. 'The Act of Dying' stomps around with enough conviction, but does not really hook me in. This band might have very little in the way of Black Sabbath influence, but they do a cover of Dio's "Don't Talk to Strangers" that sounds very little like the original. 

"Monolith" shuffle by with enough conviction to stir the more stoner-minded into modest displays of headbanging, but it is a collection of riffs rather than a song that I get invested in. There is a more woeful intention behind the last song. At thirteen minutes they had room to form melody and dynamics, which they do rather than jsut drone, though howled vocals begin to get a little old at this point in the album. I will give this album an 8, it carries a big sound and works well for what they are going for. 

pst571