Grimoire Ordo Devus by ONDSKAPT<\/a><\/iframe><\/p>\n
\nDread Sovereign<\/strong> – Alchemical Warfare<\/em><\/p>\n
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Originally coined as Primordial<\/strong> vocalist Nemtheanga’s doom metal outlet on the side by 2017’s For Doom the Bell Tolls<\/em>, Dread Sovereign<\/strong> had partially re-invented themselves as a dirty, quasi-blackened rock ‘n roll act, and despite a promising, if not always successful beginning, I quickly found any interest in the project waning. Still, I couldn’t bring myself to miss Alchemical Warfare<\/em> when opportunity knocked, in hopes a new, more even ground had been found. Unfortunately, despite all the good that’s on offer here on the projects third full-length, the deck’s only scattered wider. The blackened filth has been left to gather at the tail-end of the album, in the form of Bathory<\/strong> tribute “Devil’s Bane”, and the Bathory cover “You Don’t Move Me (I Don’t Give a Fuck)”, neither of which really sit too well with the album, although the former does its best, highlighting the band’s status as a side-project for all the ideas Primordial simply won’t stretch into.<\/p>\nThere’s plenty of mid-tempo songs reaching for the fine line between classic doom and heavy metal this time around and while these mainly work well, it becomes evident as the album progresses that Dread Sovereign simply doesn’t have the riffs for this line of work. Nemtheanga’s voice is clearly their biggest gun, and while his work is passionate throughout, and allows for shades I don’t remember being present on the latest Primordial, it works best coupled with the slow doom Dread Sovereign began with. Not to mention, this is where the band’s strength lies in as well, so it’s a great shame that it’s little more than a seasoning in the mess that is Alchemical Warfare<\/em>.<\/p>\nOf the doomiest tracks “She Wolves of the Savage Season” does a fine job of opening the record with a few minutes of smog-thick tension before letting loose, and closes on a three-minute jam, but despite doing so well, it mostly feels like an unnecessary drag. And not content on merely opening most of the songs with the same synth buzz, the jam sections return to plague many a song thereafter. “Nature is the Devil’s Church” tries to recapture what works in “She Wolves…”, but fails and feels aimless, and “Ruins Upon the Temple Mount” spends its entire first half in the mix of a pointless jam and aimless tension-building that never builds to a proper finale. Though the cover notwithstanding no song stands out as poorly as “Her Master’s Voice”, an 8-minute classic hard rock track lost in the middle of it all for whatever reason, and it’s especially painful because it also includes what will no doubt be the most gorgeous chorus of 2021’s first half, and will probably find few contestants in the latter half either.<\/p>\n
Having an established, concrete identity that could be built and experimented on album by album, instead of a mess made of a constantly growing number of ingredients would help Dread Sovereign a lot, but then again, having a decent musical idea to go with at least every other song wouldn’t hurt either. A prime example of how to waste a few brilliant ideas by chucking all of your ideas together.<\/p>\n