We Love Hyperbole, don't we, music critics? The best thing ever, the heaviest album yet created by man, a revolution in metal, that kind of nonsense. Yet often, once you have unwrapped the cellophane from the package, popped the disc into your ear-bashing stereo of choice and span that son-bitch a few times, it fails to live up the hype doesn't it? Hell, I'm as guilty as anyone about this, (though thankfully I don't endlessly fellate the bafflingly average Mastodon every five seconds, unlike some of our print cousins), but just every now and then, along comes an album that justifies the barrage of superlatives...
Of course, I was always going to like this album. As a long time follower and adept at the altar of the Ghost, I'm predisposed to adoring this platter. Their last offering, 2007's "The Great Work" was a bloody good listen - albeit a definite grower. This, however, is a bloody steamroller, with some huge, towering future classics.
Anchored in the tradition of doom, it probably wouldn't be entirely fair to pigeonhole the Centurions entirely within that cul-de-sac, impending tours with bona-fide scene legends Saint Vitus notwithstanding. There is more here than the usual riffs, down tuned attitude and leaden pace. You recall how Iron Monkey were often called doom metal, and indeed there were some stylistic resemblances, but they never quite fitted in with the faded T-shirt and bell-bottom brigade? It's a similar story here, though that's essentially where the sonic similarities end. Centurions Ghost have never been so progressive, had such a handle on the dynamics of huge, brutal walls of sound and never before had such an unequivocal mastery of light and shade.
The humble guitar has been transformed here, almost alchemically, from a simple instrument to a tool of wonder and great subtlety. Much of the crushing riffing here is the guitar equivalent of huge storm waves smashing against coastal defences - the ebb and tide of the riffs, the smash of the sound and the splash of the cymbals. There are some blues based licks here and there of course, and all the better for them, but the London four piece never surrender themselves to lazy trad-doom wig outs, preferring instead to marry the rhythm section into producing some impressive, thought provoking twists in the music that defy expectations.
This is an angry, dark beast too; much more brutal than the Centurions Ghost of yore. The vocals, previously a minor bone of contention with your truly, finally come into their own on this album. It's not simply a case of being "heavy" for its own sake either, as "Blessed and Cursed" is a truly layered listen, revealing itself gradually and continually over repeated listens with a subtle - but always epic - vibe. I sense essences of Celtic Frost, some of the subtle moments of Neurosis and the baroque doom gnosis of Thee Plague of Gentlemen here and there, with a guitar tone that at moments brings to mind Crowbar on their godly Odd Fellows Rest - only, well...only more so. Ach, maybe my hyperbole pistol has run out of ammo, but suffice to say that this exceeded my already high expectations, and though we are less than a month into 2010, I confidently expect this to feature in the top ten of the year.
http://www.myspace.com/centurionsghost
http://www.doom-dealer.de
