Crone

Epic doom may very well be one of the easiest genres to fuck up really badly. Get yourself a talented, compelling singer and you're halfway there, but for the rest you need an extremely gifted songwriter who is capable of either writing absolutely killer riffs, conjuring an incredible atmosphere of gloom and sorrow, or ideally both at the same time. Fuck any of this stuff up and you're either in for something dreadfully painful to listen to or, more often, boring as living hell. A recent conversation on the matter has shed some light on the fact that a lot of blame for the latter issue can be placed squarely on the shoulders of Reverend Bizarre, a band who were fortunately blessed with one of the most compelling singers in doom and a penchant for writing riffs so brain-sticky that it didn't matter that they played them for twenty minutes. Many bands since have tried and failed take inspiration from those guys, and this is why we have things like Pallbearer.

Anyway, Crone is an Aussie band playing in a very traditional sort of epic doom style, not too far off Rev Biz themselves or maybe The Wounded Kings. Mainly slower and drearier than a Russian novel, but interspersed with sections of upbeat Vitus-ish bits that add some much appreciated variety to the proceedings. More importantly, perhaps, is the presence of Aussie doom queen Mandy Andresen. I've always been captivated by her powerful vocals, but honestly I always thought her pipes had a lot more potential than how they're used in her other two projects (piano-driven goth/funeral doom act Murkrat and the trudging death/doom of The Slow Death). Here she's got this crystal clear, rich tone that sits sort of behind the mix in the distance, yet shines through with perfect clarity due to its higher register than the lumbering guitars and rhythm section. It's really A-grade stuff - not at all showy, dripping with sadness, and just plain perfect for this sort of stuff. If you were as disappointed in the most recent two Wounded Kings albums as I was and thought Sharie Neyland's Jefferson Airplane on opiates vocals were an ill fit, then this will surely wet your whistle.

Another point of comparison is probably fellow Oz doom mongers Rituals of the Oak, as the bands aren't all that different stylistically. However, Crone are nowhere near as miserably boring as that snoozefest. Mandy's vocals are light years more charismatic and just plain good than RotO's Sabine, who halfasses her way through all of her uninspired vocal lines, and Crone also don't constantly attempt to put you to sleep like that band tends to do. That's not to say that the album is completely engaging throughout - "Carcosa" is the weak link that has some nice leads but suffers from that tiresome "play a chord, wait a while, play a different chord" riffing style that almost never really sounds cohesive or gripping. At least the keyboard-and-drums nightmare segue into the pounding conclusion of that song is excellent stuff. That super slow approach returns for closing track "The Sands of Time" but there it sounds more like a glacial riff than a series of unrelated chords, plus there's an eerie organ that wafts its way through the guitars there, which is a really nice touch.

The highlight of the album is probably the delicious "The Blade", which features a main riff that you'll have tons of difficulty extracting from your waking thoughts. Here, you can witness the band exercise another essential ingredient in successful doomage: if you're going to repeat a simple riff a shitload of riffs, it really helps to have a drummer who recognize that a huge part of the burden of conveying interesting dynamics falls squarely on his shoulders. Fortunately, Naxzul/The Slow Death skinsman Yonn Mclaughlin is up to the task, varying beats, adding micro-fills and getting the most out of his cymbals while Innsmouth (!!!) bassist Todd Daly keeps your head nodding with his six-string grooves. Yonn also has enough restraint to hold back a bit during the more exploratory guitar passages.

I reckon I should mention that the production on this tape did sort of disappointment me somewhat. My introduction to the band was actually a fairly good sounding live version of "The Blade" that I found on YouTube before the band had actually released this album, so I was a bit let down to hear the studio version have such decidedly demo-level production. Not that it's awful or anything (in fact, some parts of it are really nice, like the haunting specter that is Mandy's lovely voice), and everything is pretty clear, but all that tape compression and the really narrow stereo stage does kind of sap some of the energy out of the guitar tone. Perhaps the CD remaster helps out with that issue, but I haven't heard that version just yet.

Despite a couple of gripes I have with some of the songwriting choices and quibbles with the production, this was really a great find and I can't recommend it enough to people who are after doom that tends toward the slow, ponderous and dreary while still maintaining a notably epic quality. Really the butter-smooth and nigh flawless vocal performance alone is practically worth the price of entry. Definitely one to keep on your radar.