BRITON RITES — For Mircalla (review)

BRITON RITES — For Mircalla album cover Album · 2010 · Doom Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
Warthur
Take a look at the cover of Briton Rites' sole album (so far), and you get a pretty good idea of where the band are coming from. Satanic rites, vampires, boobies, and one of those elaborate Pentagrams from the fake, cheesy version of the Necronomicon that got everywhere in the 1980s when Avon put it out in paperback (and which got further spread in the metal scene when Morbid Angel drew on it extensively for their imagery)? Yep, we're talking old school here alright!

Specifically, what we are looking at is old school, traditional doom metal, with frontman Phil Swanson having a vocal style very much in the Ozzy tradition and thick, Sabbathy riffs crushingly delivered by Howie Bentley. In terms of subject matter, it's the oft-seen doom metal obsession with classic horror stories which more or less rules the day, with lots of references to H.P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard and with the album bookended by epic tributes to Sheridan Le Fanu's classic vampire novel Carmilla (which, indeed, the album title is also a reference to).

This is not, by any stretch of the imagination, a revolutionary album - it doesn't take the traditional doom metal subgenre anywhere which it isn't already intimately familiar with thanks to the work of the likes of Electric Wizard, Candlemass, or for that matter genre godfathers Black Sabbath themselves. But for those who like this sort of thing - and I include myself in that - this is an excellently realised take on the style, and one which makes me dearly hope that we'll see more from Briton Rites in the future.
Share this review
more

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

Review Index

Member Zone

Username:
Password:
Stay signed in

Metal Subgenres

Artists Alpha-index

MMA TOP 5 Metal ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
Master of Puppets Thrash Metal
METALLICA
Buy this album from our partners
Paranoid Heavy Metal
BLACK SABBATH
Buy this album from our partners
Moving Pictures Hard Rock
RUSH
Buy this album from our partners
Powerslave NWoBHM
IRON MAIDEN
Buy this album from our partners
Rising Heavy Metal
RAINBOW
Buy this album from our partners

New Metal Artists

New Metal Releases

I, the Destroyer Black Metal
SVARTFJELL
Buy this album from MMA partners
A Sonication Technical Death Metal
OBSCURA
Buy this album from MMA partners
Hin helga kvöl Atmospheric Sludge Metal
SÓLSTAFIR
Buy this album from MMA partners
The Cycles of Suffering Black Metal
BURIAL OATH
Buy this album from MMA partners
The Suns of Perdition - Chapter IV: To Shadow Zion Black Metal
PANZERFAUST
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Metal Online Videos

DAWN OF REVENGE - Sanctuary [official music video]
DAWN OF REVENGE
Bosh66· 7 days ago
DAWN OF REVENGE - Farewell [official music video]
DAWN OF REVENGE
Bosh66· 7 days ago
DAWN OF REVENGE - Curtain of Death - [official music video]
DAWN OF REVENGE
Bosh66· 7 days ago
DAWN OF REVENGE - Vengeance [official music video]
DAWN OF REVENGE
Bosh66· 7 days ago
DAWN OF REVENGE - I Need You [official music video]
DAWN OF REVENGE
Bosh66· 7 days ago
More videos

New MMA Metal Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Metal News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us
Follow us on Twitter Become a Facebook fan RSS Feed