It’s been three years since UK/German crushing doom metal band Thronehammer released their third album, Kingslayer, which I reviewed here, as well as the previous one, Incantation Rites.
Slay | Kill | Erase is the band’s fourth album and, at 73 minutes, is pretty much the length of all their other albums; you know it’s time to set some time aside to listen to this. The band consists of Uwe Void -Bass, Stuart West – Guitars, Kat Shevil Gillham – Vocals, Markus Ströhlein -Drums, Tobias Utz -Guitars, and Daniel Ringl Guitars. If you were a fan of the band’s previous material, then no doubt you will enjoy their latest slab of crushing heaviness.
The title track starts things off with a brooding, atmospheric, slow-burning march. You can tell this is going to be good. The music slowly starts to seep in, and once it fully hits around the two-minute mark, the heaviness will weigh you down and smother you to death. The guitar tone is unreal. It’s always been crushing, but it’s just extra on here. Kat is belting out vocals and using her more guttural tone, and combined with the heaviness, this is pure doom/death. Some cool guitar harmonies start creeping in, and the bass guitar is pretty darn heavy on this as well. You have to listen to this album with a proper stereo system with a subwoofer. It shook my house and alarmed my neighbors. The song picks up the pace ever so slightly, getting a bit hoppy, towards the end, before more of the sloth-like, almost funeral doom enters into the picture. Kat’s cleans enter towards the end of the song. Her cleans have been some of my favorite in doom/death metal for quite a number of years now. They are somewhat haunting, as well as adding an emotive quality to them. Killer opening song.
“Rise of Resistance” was one of the singles released prior to the album. Starting with an isolated, far-off guitar, before everything hits you like a ton of bricks around the minute marker. The haunting guitar harmonies in the background while the bludgeoning attack rolls forward with Kat leading the charge with her deep, but well-enunciated vocals. This song is deliberate, crushing, and atmospheric. Kat’s cleans at the 2.41 marker sent shivers down my spine and there is a bit of a Messiah Marcolin (ex-Candlemass), vibe going on with her cleans. The song clobbers you down with emotion, and I can see a castle in the distance. I am sitting near a small wooden bridge with the dew-scented meadows. It is lightly raining with an overcast sky. The castle has clouds around it, surrounded by a moat, and it calms me while I am swilling some dark ale in a hellaciously large Bavarian Beerstein. If this does not conjure up images of Thronehammer’s music, then I am lost. Their music always takes me back to Medieval lands and times. I love it.
“Dethroned” is another killer song with guitar harmonies starting things up and the music hitting at the perfect time. If this song is played live, at these cues the spotlights need to shine. The ‘ahhhhhh’ vocals start in and add the perfect backdrop, as rather than getting into her gutturals, starts her clean tones, then right into the gutturals. The deeper registers hammer home viciousness and anger. It’s all enveloped in a monstrously heavy and catchy rhythm section. Although slow, the music is so dense, through the castle fog, as the cleans come back into the fold. Come to think of it, this may be the most emotive Thronehammer album yet. When music conjures up those internal feelings from within, it makes that band extra special for me. There are plenty of headbanging moments as well.
So the first seven songs are all vocalized by Kat. For the last song, “Onwards to Oblivion”, their friend Max lends the pipes throughout the song. The vocals are more rooted in traditional doom metal, such as older Candlemass/Solitude Aeturnus/Solstice (UK). The music, while heavy, is a little less doom/death and more in line with the vocal tones. Max has a great set of pipes, and this is a terrific song, drenched in atmosphere and despair. Some very cool drumming, some polyrhythms, faster-paced moments, and a little blast all starting around the seven-minute mark. The song trails off, as softly as it began.
Slay | Kill | Erase is an amazing album from Thronehammer. It’s my favorite, in fact, with the variety of doom/death bludgeoning moments alongside their softer, more atmospheric and emotive moments. The band is at the top of their game, and as far as this genre goes, they are one of the best, for sure. Killer and no filler!!
