ALBUM REVIEW: Realm of Ash and Blood – Solothus

Finland’s SOLOTHUS are rising to the forefront of the international death/doom scene. Everything SOLORGUS has released from their 2011 demo onward has been solid, but it wasn’t until 2016’s No King Reigns Eternal that the band really began to hit their stride, making music fans sit up and take notice. Their latest, third album, Realm of Ash and Blood, comes four years after this breakthrough record, and really builds on the excellent template that album laid out, providing another fantastic slab of gnarly death/doom.

Realm of Ash and Blood‘s opener Father of Sickness is a murky, disjointed piece of music that sets a bleak and imposing tone for the rest of the album right away. Monstrous guitar hooks and punishing gutturals build a vast wall of noise, with a few slick melodies thrown into the mix to add some light in amongst the darkness. It’s a measured, yet monolithic, way to kick the album off. The Watcher follows in much the same vein, with some more adventurous lead hooks and softer guitar tones adding a bit more variety to the proceedings and making for a more ethereal feel at certain moments. The drums set a steady metre in the background, and the sludgy, tar thick vocals provide an impressive exclamation point on all the music.

The Gallows’ Promise proves to be a sprawling, slow burning piece of music that is absolutely dripping with atmosphere. The guitars, with their hazier sound and eerie approach, complement the hypnotic drumming and dense vocal deliveries really well, and make for a thoroughly engrossing sound. This a great track from start to finish, with a far more sombre and epic style than the two openers, making it one of the stand out offerings on the record. By contrast with the lengthy and crawling track that preceded it, Last Breath is much shorter with a cleaner sound, acting more as a brief interlude that bridges the two halves of Realm of Ash and Blood. It’s a really nice change of pace that shows a different side to SOLOTHUS.

Below Black Waters is a fierce, brooding track with a huge guitar sound and monstrous vocals. It’s got lots of solid grooves thrown into the mix to keep it interesting and a brilliant guitar solo towards its closing moments, but, compared with many of the other tracks on the album, it’s a bit unremarkable. Chasm of Shattered Blood has a far more hypnotic feel to it, taking the dark, vicious edge of the previous song and expanding upon it and making the more minimal approach to the songwriting work incredibly well. It’s thoroughly engrossing from start to finish, and once again has a couple of lively guitar solo that only serves to make the song sound even better. A Rain of Ash, at just over ten minutes in length, manages to be a great and memorable track. Building a gargantuan, doomy sound that utilises a variety of cleaner guitar tones, it’s an eclectic and haunting piece of music, with some well placed gutturals and slick guitar flourishes peppered liberally throughout the track, making this an excellent end to the album.

This is a much leaner and more focused record than No King Reigns Eternal, and it’s very clear that SOLOTHUS have developed their sound even further. Although Realm of Ash and Blood trims much of what little fat there was in their sound, a bit more attention to the hooks would have really elevated this record far beyond its predecessor. Nevertheless, this is a great album from start to finish, with SOLOTHUS finding a good balance between the death and doom elements within the sound, and clearly beginning to experiment tentatively with their sound, making for an impressive and eclectic record.

Rating: 8/10

Realm of Ash and Blood is out now via 20 Buck Spin. 

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