Melbourne maulers Mammon’s Throne know a thing or two about dynamics. Not for them is ‘extreme doom’ an excuse for half an hour of musical crash bang wallop and furious barking; Rather, over the course of their second album they explore every inch of the theatre of operations known as ‘doom’, in the process developing a sound that, whilst very much owing allegiance to the old Gods of ‘this kind of thing’, is very much their own.

To these old ears the band are best at their most direct; Second track Beyond is three and a half minutes of cracking headbanging fayre, nothing more, nothing less, but that’s not to denigrate the more ‘progressive’ strands of musical thought to be found elsewhere on the album. For instance, if it’s epic death/doom you crave, you’ll be spending a lot of time with the record’s title track, which is a superb sprawling, leviathan piece of soul-crushing heavy music and no mistake. Produced superbly by the band and Joel Taylor, Mammon’s Throne (Reap What You Sow) crashes out of the speakers, expanding to absolutely fill whatever space you happen to be occupying when listening – there’s really no escape as the sheer heaviness of the track sucks the wind from your lungs with remorseless, grim-faced precision.

Final track Impure is pretty ‘nice’ too, featuring a fine vocal from Matthew Miller, who somehow holds his own against the mountainous backing of guitarists Amesh Perera and Johnny Chammas. Sam Talbot-Cannon (bass) Nick Boschan and drumming companion deserve mention too, creating enough ballast in the engine room to keep a dozen ocean liners seaworthy for months, with the result being one of the most genuinely enjoyable doom/death releases I’ve heard in a long, long time.

Mammon’s Throne is out now.