WITCHTHROAT SERPENT Swallow The Venom

SVART

Gallic ritual doom crew chase their own tails

This third slab of occultinspired doom from French triumvirate Witchthroat Serpent does little to progress their sound from 2016’s well-received, Sang-Dragon. Trading in many of the genre’s longestablished hallmarks, the pagan ritualism of opener Feu Sacré’s ceremony leads to the slow-burn riffs of Lucifer’s Fire and the haunted voice of vocalist Fredrik Bolzann, echoing on hot winds from the chasm. The Might Of The Unfail’s main riff repeatedly builds to collapse, folding in on itself in compelling undulations. Red Eyed Albino lumbers into life gradually, picking up perpetual motion under its own weight. Witchthroat Serpent uphold doom’s staunch values of the riff, as implacable as the passage of time, and sound somewhat rote as a consequence. Your enjoyment of that depends on your levels of stamina for such a seemingly intractable sound.

FOR FANS OF: Electric Wizard, Goatsnake, Unearthly Trance

TOM O’BOyLE