I’m listening to Deep River Acolytes as I’m on the train. Their new album “The Hour of Trial” is blasting through my earphones. Yet another local band, question is will they manage to grab my attention with their so called doom/stoner metal?
The band kicked off in 2011 in Oulu. Their first demos were released under the name Deliverance. After a while the band felt like changing the name, so the band instead became Deep River Acolytes. “The Hour of Trial” was released on 23 February 2018 through Via Nocturna. Deep river Acolytes label themselves as doom/stoner metal, but it’s a bit more complicated than that. As a matter of fact they consider theirselves to be AOR, which in their minds means Antichrist Oriented Rock. There’s a lot of different influences from everywhere, hard rock, classic rock, groove metal, everything is present in this album.
The album starts off with “The Unknown Grandeur”. The song serves as a great, heavy intro to the whole album. Like with any opener, you feel the right kind of energy and you can interpret how the rest of the album might sound like. “The Unknown Grandeur” tells me it’s going to be different than just doom/stoner metal. I’m left with surprise, because of that. Usually I find myself losing myself in doom/stoner metal. The music doesn’t go by slowly and even though there is some clear elements that would put their music in that box, it’s more than that. The apparent references to hard rock, classic rock, groove metal and even sometimes black metal are very surprising. A proof of the latter one is “Deviltrance” when the song starts off, you get that same grim, slow burning riff that every black metal song consists of. After that, it turns into a proper heavy metal track. It has thus interesting twists and turns and gets you hooked instantly. “Temples Below” offers really nifty guitar riffs, that are very catchy and drive the song forward. Great elements about these album are the often dark and heavy riffs. For me the highlight however, comes when “The Uninvited” is blasting through my earphones. Possibly the darkest song on the album. The song also has a nice flow and groove to the guitars, which makes it rhythm-wise a very interesting song.
All-in-all “The Hour of Trial” offers some great riffs, has compelling moments that won’t let you go till the end of the album. I especially like the vocals, which offer quite a variety, often sound a bit nonchalant and more rough, but in reality fit really well with the style of the music. All the different elements are blended in very well in the album, leading to a coherent album, that all heavy metal enthusiast will enjoy listening.
Tracklist
- The Unknown Grandeur
- Deviltrance
- Temples Below
- Wake at Sea
- Cages
- The Uninvited
- Grave Devotion
- Salt of This Earth
- The Undertow
Label
Via Nocturna
Lineup
AR, EK, JT, TH, PV
For fans of
Mercyful Fate, Danzig, Trouble, Sabbath, Maiden, Paradise Lost, Babylon Whores etc.
