Desolate Realm – Desolate Realm
Release Date: 23rd April 2021
Label: Self Released
Bandcamp
Genre: Doom, Groove Metal, Metal.
FFO: Solitude Aeturnus, Candlemass, Grand Magus, The Gates of Slumber.
Review By: Jonathon Hopper
A two-piece outfit from Helsinki, Desolate Realm comprise of Olli Torronen on drums and Matias Nastolin on everything else. One EP down (2020’s ‘Unleash the Storm) as well as stints with Decaying, Chalice and Altar of Betelgeuse, and it’s time for their eponymous debut album.
Opener Spire – a brutal voyage through a bleak wasteland of booming vocals and chugging guitars – sets the scene before culminating with a neat change of pace midway into a hulking great groove. If you like bands that sound like their name you really have come to the right place.
Second track Beneath the Surface continues the good work, wasting no time in launching straight into another almighty groove as the guitar crunch spars with Nastolin’s impressively beefy vocals.
The Circle slows things down to a menacing crawl with additional siren wails, that’s been compared to King Diamond and to my moth-eaten old metal ears sounds reminiscent to early Rob Halford at his larynx-shredding best.
It’s not all plain sailing – calling a song Crypt lacks originality especially when the album cover consists of a pile of skulls on some stairs inside a rib cage.
And then comes Reckoning, the most immediately satisfying of the eight tracks on offer in my humble opinion. A lo-fi rumble that drags its rotten corpse into maggot-infested Possessor territory, which believe me is a very big complement. There’s even a Gregorian monk-like chant along at the song’s deathly conclusion.
While it’s true that not every track quite hits the mark and the album could benefit from the occasional departure from the doom/ groove template, there’s certainly more than enough on offer to please fans of the genre and win Desolate Realm new friends among those who like their metal heavy and pounding.
The final word really should go to the final track, Tormented Souls. An eight and a half-minute monster that opens with a creeping riff before spreading its wings through multiple movements and time changes – this song hints that with just a tad more consistency and thematic and musical expansion, Desolate Realm could become very serious players on a par with the likes of Solitude Aeturnus and Grand Magus.
You could certainly do a lot worse than holidaying in the Desolate Realm this Summer.
(3.5 / 5)
