Usually when you think of long-form doom, you're going to think of funeral doom: something with the heartbeat of a catatonic root vegetable, sewn together from refined despair. Cromlech share a similar intensity of both duration and emotion, but their tears are the tears of epic heroes of mythic tragedies: Ascent Of Kings opens with all three vocalists raising their voices to a folk-inspired exaltation of the land once known as Cimmeria. That's the historical region of Cimmeria, populated by Scythians thousands of years ago, not the land of Conan, although once you see those muscly guys on the cover and hear these extended lays of heroic deeds in somber heavy metal form, the effect is much the same. Cromlech's unique vocal style incorporates all three of those vocalists telling tales in throaty vibratos, harmonizing with each other over endlessly changing themes of sometimes monastic, sometimes menacing heft, sometimes with bits of Iron Maiden-style riffing for an extra dose of speed. The album is lengthy and uncompromising, and you will feel the breadth of its tales at its close.

Bandcamp / YouTube (full album playlist)

›› Full review...