These Skies Must Break

At the end of an Iron Void review, I subliminally suggested scoping out the sinister Dutch doom clergy of Asten, North Brabant's Hooded Priest - badass name btw - and as much as I got my down-tuned jollies from tracks such as "Mrs. Satan", "8 O'Clock Witch" and the somewhat alarming "Well Worth The Dig" from its 2010 full-length debut, Devil Worship Reckoning, last year's short, twenty-three minute EP, These Skies Must Break, has me simply yearning for more lugubrious black magic brawn and token sped up escapades on behalf of HP's austere and unholy parishioner/ front man Luther "Finlay" Veldmark (who also evokes an image of a mad doctor/ evil mastermind bent on taking over the World) and his grimly off-kilter minions, drummer Quornelius Backus (!), guitarist Jeff Von D and guitarist/ bassist Joe "J-Maze" Mazurewicz.

An aspect I had to warm up to was HP's generally extensive manifests, which tend to exceed the six-minute mark. For a doom metal fan, this shouldn't be overwhelming. All told I'm left wanting (this EP feels like it should have preceded Devil Worship Reckoning instead of riding its "cloak" tails six years later) while admittedly drawing a blank as to band comparisons. The reason is I tend to favor upbeat, hard-driving doom like the ubiquitous Pentagram, Iron Void, Hour Of 13 and 88 Mile Trip, to name a few. To be perfectly candid however I'm slightly out of the loop doom metal wise these days (blame the "new wave of traditional heavy metal"). Fans of slow-burn stuff like Italy's Black Oath and the seductive Haunted or Finland's now split-up Reverend Bizarre and Lord Vicar (as well as a real monster I came across last year, the German Blueszilla duo) might find something to their liking here, but like I said, far and wide I'm rusty in this regards and would do well to brush up on my doom metal lore. All told, it behooves genre disciples to check these Dutchmen out, as I've the nagging sense their sophomore full-length will stoke serious fire (and brimstone) when it comes out i.e. it'll be the Priest("hood") doing the disturbing; not the other way around (recall Black Sabbath's Disturbing The Priest?…ha ha). If their stronger material (such as the above mentioned tracks from the debut and this EP's second offering, "Herod Again") is of any indication, the odds are this prophecy willl be fulfilled.

Peculiarly, the first track on offer, "Call For The Hearse", is also the title of the quartet's first demo, yet this is it's first appearance in the Hooded Ones short, albeit grim, catalog. While bleakly uninventive (and already slow) at first, three and some minutes in HP downshifts some more to a creepy interlude rife with eerie keys and 'ol Quornelius' hypnotic drum patter before this dark dirge transgresses into some stoic early Electric Wizard (think "Stone Magnet" from the Dorset, U.K., trio's self-titled debut) riff-age, thereby ending on a high note.

Wedged in the middle is "Herod Again", a decidedly Reverend Bizarre-ish tribute to Herod The Great (a Roman client king of Judea also simply known as Herod I) and also the more upbeat number on offer. The sound of a wailing babe adds a slightly disconcerting edge to this track, amplified by Veldmark's lugubrious and anti-ecclesiastical overtures. More organ style keys and doom-y Sabbath trills (a la N.I.B.) ratch up the fear factor before the title track proper sinisterly weaves its way in to the listener's by now tormented soul to the accompaniment of additional Veldmark admonitions and scare tactics and another Reverend Bizarre evoking riff (kind of like "Doom Over The World") until the coffin lid slams shut for good six minutes later.

In an nutshell, Hooded Priest doesn't re-invent the scythe with These Skies Must Break but still suitably honours this brand of haunting tombstone doom.