Week 48: Solstice - Cromlech

The artist: Solstice from the UK are an epic doom metal band who despite only ever releasing two albums and an EP, have made a recent comeback. Not a whole lot happened with them in the 00s but with the recent tours and writing one new song for their live shows, you can tell they've returned to the metal realm and are ready to kick even more ass sometime in the near future. The third album named Englander is highly anticipated considering it's been 13 years since they released New Dark Age and they're well overdue.

The album: New Dark Age is the superior album out of the two Solstice albums. If you hear this record first, there isn't much to care about Lamentations. New Dark Age has some monstrous doom metal numbers including The Sleeping Tyrant (which had a low budget music video), Cimmerian Codex, Hammer of Damnation, Cromlech and New Dark Age, Pt. 2. These are the main five tracks of the album and could have just left it at that but Solstice added a whole new dimension by adding an individual section with an acoustic interlude, a very folky ballad and a spoken verse with sounds of wind blowing. Afterwards, the album immediately returns to its doom destruction. Another thing to note about New Dark Age is the unusual choice of words. When reading the lyrics, you'll come across many words that you may have not heard of all your life and extra credit should be handed out to them for acknowledging such words. Lastly, by getting the re-release of this album, you will be rewarded with an excellent cover of Iron Maiden's The Prophecy.

The song: Cromlech starts off rather moody with the bass and clean guitars. The bass is certainly one of the finest performances for it from Solstice and this intro is justified. The heavy guitars kick in after a minute but it's not long until the band pick up the pace. The rhythm may be fast for doom metal but the song endures itself long enough, especially when some lines are repeated several lines. This isn't bad, though since it's hard to get enough of "LEND ME YOUR STEEL!" Now that just screams heavy metal. Even if the song is faster than an average doom metal song, Richard M. Walker and Hamish Glencross do not halt with the crushing doom riffs. The song does slow down within 6 minutes and this is where we're given the beautiful solo by them. The main rhythm isn't done yet, though as it returns afterwards to finish off the full lyrics. Some parts may be repeated several times but it still offers a lot within 10 1/2 minutes. Overall, Cromlech just proves what this heavily overlooked band can do with their music and here's hoping Englander will take notes from songs like these.