Album Review: Lord Vicar – The Black Powder

'I want to feel again / Anything at all / Anything but the endless black line’, cries a clearly upset Chritus Linderson as doom titans Lord Vicar tap into a vein of doomy, existential dread. Within this bleak ennui albums like The Black Powder flourish, offering not a beacon of hope but a portent of despondency. As such, the band’s fourth outing stands foreboding and monolithic, a crushing testament to despair.

This is doom metal at its most relevant and majestic, an ultra-heavy display of lamenting dirges simultaneously exposing a deeply personal vulnerability and an iron fist. If the punkish Levitation isn’t enough to get heads rolling, then epic 17-minute opener Sulphur, Charcoal And Saltpetre, the utterly forlorn Descent and monumental closer A Second Chance will bring you crumbling to your knees.

At the altar of such master craftsmanship there is no solace – only truth, riffs and a glorious sense of sonic misery.

Verdict: KKKK