ALBUM REVIEW: The Black Powder – Lord Vicar

Born out of the ashes of legendary doom metal behemoths REVEREND BIZARRE, LORD VICAR are a band that have managed to not only match the longevity of the former act, but also produce music that is on par, and in many cases better than, them too. With four full length albums under their belt in their twelve year tenure as a band, each one incredibly strong and impressive in its own right, the band features some of the best musicians within the Finnish doom metal scene. With their latest record, The Black Powder, the band manages to somehow outstrip the vast majority of their back catalogue in terms of quality and musicality, standing as possibly their best record to date.

Sulphur, Charcoal And Saltpetre starts this album off on the right note, with a long, sprawling doom metal track with lots of dark atmosphere, thick, chunky riffs, interspersed with acoustic guitar flourishes and solid, haunting vocals, with plenty of thunderous drumming and sludgy bass lines, which make this song sound absolutely huge. It’s a great start to a varied and eclectic album, which shifts between dirge-like, morose offerings like, The Temple In The Bedrock, Levitation and A Second Chance, which focus more on producing dense, punishing rhythmic hooks and a bleak feel, with the occasional punchy, energetic and driven affair like Impact providing plenty of power to the proceedings. Nightmare stands apart from the pack, along with the forceful, lively and instantly memorable Black Lines, with a far more atmosphere driven, epic sound that makes it sound all the more grandiose and beautiful in spite of its lack of all of the dirty, distorted guitar licks that it peppers the sound with.

For the most part, however, it is a far more robust and primal affair, with lots of great riffs, authoritative rhythm sections and sonorous, booming vocals which break up the crushing quality of the music somewhat. World Encircled in particular is an early stand out, with bowel loosening heavy guitars and bass which it’s incredibly hard not to thoroughly love from the first listen, carrying this song for the most part and making it engrossing from start to finish. Interestingly, at many points on the record, it is in fact Chritus‘ excellent vocals that provide many of the high points of the music, with Kimi‘s soaring guitar lines adding a great backdrop to the gloomy, anguished delivery of the singing. The album ultimately takes the listener from one extreme to other, starting with a claustrophobic, funeral epic and taking us through driven, almost aggressive parts, before coming full circle with the ninth and final track, bringing this album to a close excellently.

The Black Powder is a truly brilliant doom metal record that manages to strike a balance between slow, sludgy and monolithic riffs and more energised, frenzied and powerful moments incredibly well, without a solitary dull moment within it to drag the record down even slightly. The band are, as you can probably guess, masters at their craft, and know how to pull out excellent musicianship and a gloomy, sombre atmosphere to make the album thoroughly impressive and memorable even from the first listen. It’s a massive step up from Gates Of Flesh and stands as easily one of their most impressive albums to date, marking their current creative zenith. It will be interesting to see how LORD VICAR follow this record up.

Rating: 9/10

The Black Powder is out now via Church Within Records. 

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