Band:	King Goat
Album:	Debt Of Aeons
Style:	Psychedelic doom metal
Release date:	April 20, 2018
A review by:	RaduP

01. Rapture
02. Eremite's Rest
03. Debt Of Aeons
04. Psychasthenia
05. Doldrum Sentinels
06. .
07. On Dusty Avenues

There's a lot of fuss lately about the progressive tendencies of doom metal lately, from the more psychedelic Elder to the more traditional Pallbearer and now to the more epic King Goat. Surely this must be odd-time-signatures prog but slow, right?

This new direction that doom is taking is much subtler in its progressive influences. Rather than sink into technical pretentiousness, they find the common ground of the dramatic and eclectic vocal performance and the rich textures and let their compositions be as slow and crushing as doom and as larger-than-life and intriguing as prog. Their debut, Conduit, managed to pull off this duality perfectly, but it seems like Debt Of Aeons pulls back a bit on the prog elements? at least at first.

The first three tracks of the album do have their fair share of progressive toppings, but they're very slim and superficial. Instead, this side of the album focuses more on the epic doom aspect of their music. While the instrumentation is by no means uninteresting, it is the vocals that take the forefront, and Anthony Trimming does deliver a marvellous performance here. Varied and powerful, ranging from cruel rasps to soaring opera, his voice will drag you through the desolate first side of the album.

Things change a bit once "Psychasternia" hits. Not a song in itself but more of a transition, the ambiance suffers a bit of a shift. The compositions get an extra oomph and a bump in complexity and pace. Rather than slowly dragging and evoking solitude, the final two songs on the album (not counting the untitled interlude) take further the sound established on Conduit. The emotion is something more immediate and intense, but just as gloomy.

While I certainly prefer the second side of the album, I wouldn't necessarily say that it's better than the first, but just that each put emphasis on different sides of the music. My review may overestimate the difference between the two, but it's still pleasing to hear variety in their songwriting, even if some moments may feel repetitive and monotonous, although that's rarely the case. The slower and more sombre first side only makes the impact of the latter one more lasting. Couple that with the vocal performance, which improved from their last effort. While the rest of the elements of Debt Of Aeons haven't undergone as much of an improvement as the vocals, the bar was already set very high.

Conduit was a very hard album to top. I'm not sure Debt Of Aeons did it, but King Goat certainly have the potential to do that. Even if they do not, these two albums will certainly cement their name in the archives of doom. Take a trip on dusty avenues.

Side note: Thus has yours truly written his 50th review.