ALBUM REVIEW: Welcome – Dun Ringill

Swedish doomsters DUN RINGILL, featuring members of THE ORDER OF ISRAFEL, are poised to release their debut album, Welcome. Some of the themes and music stylings are rather interesting and out of the ordinary, featuring carnival effects and sounds. On top of that, they have the talent of Per Wiberg of CANDLEMASS as a guest. This album on a whole pushes closer to stoner and sludge than it does doom, but definitely incorporates those elements throughout.

Kicking off the debut with Welcome To The Fun Fair Horror Time Machine, a mouthful of a title, starts off the first minute with eerie jingling of fairground tracks and nursery rhyme-esque tinkling. That classic droning doom sound that we all know and love comes through solidly, accompanied by two distinct vocal sides that changes the tone from verse to verse. The chorus is infectious and easily infests itself in the listeners subconscious, replaying in your head long after the record has stopped spinning.

Much like the previous track, Black Eyed Kids begins with some funfair tinkling, but quickly slides into a less doomy, ever so slightly stonery vibes. The whole feel of the track, from vocals to the chord progression is a proper headbanger. The pace and mood is flipped on its head around the halfway mark, becoming bass heavy, littered with groovy and psychedelic guitar work. Almost as soon as it’s started, it’s ended and back into the crushing riffs, tied together by an immense solo that’ll leave you in a puddle on the floor. Coming into the third track, the overall sound is pretty standard, nothing that will blow your socks off, but enough to keep you interested. A fair while into Open Your Eyes (And See The Happiness And Truth) and this all changes. The tempo grinds to a halt and takes a more acoustic note, then slams the heaviness back up to 11 for a face-melter right at the end.

Straight off the bat, The Door has a classic ’80s rock and roll sound, mixed with a sprinkling of doom. The narrative elements of the track are a trip into the psyche of DUN RINGILL that will surely get your head bobbing along. It seems to be a running theme that the majority of a track is pretty solid, but the last third or so is an utter belter and features some of the best parts of the album. Penultimate track, Snow Of Ashes, is another great example of blending doom and stoner together. The droning, mixed with intermittent riffs really amps up the power, especially when combined with the immense vocal stylings too, that have a slight vibe of Chuck Billy of TESTAMENT. In the slower, crunchier sections the doom shines through and puts across a sorrowful mood.

At last, we come to the final track on the debut album, The Demon Within. Initially it begins quite slow and timid compared to the rest of Welcome. It comes across as a brooding and epic track, slowly winding up and edging towards a great burst of energy, but alas, this is not the case. Not that it’s a bad thing, the way it subverts your expectations and brings a really funky and groovy blues vibe into the mix with the guitar solo that sounds somewhat like a synth piano is rather quite extraordinary! The entirety of the track is one long journey that culminates into a single section that is outstanding and really makes its mark on the album.

DUN RINGILL have proven themselves to be adept at their work, producing a fantastic album that keeps the listener entertained throughout. From crushing riffs, brutal vocals, and downright spine-tingling guitar solo’s they’ve shown to the world with this debut, that they aren’t just messing around, they mean business.

Rating: 9/10

Welcome is out now via Argonauta Records. 

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