Doom metal fans have a rigid set of expectations; If you’re a band hoping to scale the doom ziggurat you have to wheel out all their fave tropes if you’re to have any hope of ‘making it’; This, of course, can lead to some stultifying, constipated music if the musicians making it don’t possess a spark of ingenuity to lift their doom from the mire. Luckily Perth natives King Zog possess that spark in bucket loads if the evidence of their new album Second Dawn is anything to go by.
So while it’s true that they do lapse into the odd bit of elephantine riffery and Sabbath worship every now and then, they also absolutely scale the heights of masterful musicianship and song writing savvy elsewhere. Standout track Hollow Man Blues possesses real appeal, appeal big enough to break the band out of the doom ghetto and into the sunlit uplands of popular acclaim. Daniel Durack and Connor Pitts-West really know how to work a riff, and there is some truly wonderful, interesting lead work going on here that unmasks a unique ear for melody and an intrinsic understanding of how this heavy metal lark works. It’s a joy to listen to, and when Martin Gonzalez (bass) and drummer Sean Ryan slip into top gear as well, as they do at the end of Creep On, well… let’s just say my South London living room hasn’t witnessed scenes of spontaneous wigging out like it did when this track came on to the death deck for the first time in quite a while…
Even the eleven minute epic Second Dawn crackles with energy and mercurial excitement, and I’ve got to say I couldn’t wait to go back to the start and press play again when the album finished. This is great heavy music – call it doom if you want, I’m just calling it brilliant. Get it in your ears ASAP!
Second Dawn releases on July 31st.
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