DREAD SOVEREIGN

Alchemical Warfare METAL BLADE

Alan Averill’s Dublin doom brigade bring the riff-hammer down

There are few more uplifting phenomena than the sound of Alan Averill going at full throttle. Dread Sovereign have been the Primordial frontman’s outlet for scabby-knuckled doom for nearly a decade, and Alchemical Warfare announces that the band are clicking into a new, higher gear right now. As with its two predecessors, the trio’s third album is full of slithering, Sabbathian pomp, but delivered with so much dirt and disdain under its fingernails that, at times, Black Flag’s Inside My Head seems an equally relevant reference point. The finest moments arrive when Dread Sovereign swallow the worm and go for broke; Her Master’s Voice

is an eccentric, prog-tinged monolith with a brilliantly unhinged vocal from

Averill and Ruin Upon The Temple Mount is deeply frostbitten psychedelic post-punk. If it’s belligerent, riff-driven filth you’re after, look no further. ■■■■■■■■■■

FOR FANS OF: Black Flag, Black Sabbath, Fvneral Fvkk DOM LAWSON