Band:	Sorcerer
Album:	Lamenting Of The Innocent
Style:	Epic doom metal
Release date:	May 29, 2020
Guest review by:	tominator

01. Persecution (Intro)
02. The Hammer Of Witches
03. Lamenting Of The Innocent
04. Institoris
05. Where Spirits Die
06. Deliverance [feat. Johan Langqvist]
07. Age Of The Damned
08. Condemned
09. Dance With The Devil
10. Path To Perdition

Since I did a review of Sorcerer's previous album, I'd figure I could do one for their 2020 release as well. Did Lamenting Of The Innocent live up to the high expectations I had set for it? For the most part, yes. Let's discuss in further detail, shall we?

Now, those of you who've read my review for The Crowning Of The Fire King already know that I absolutely loved that album. However, high praises result in high expectations for the next record. And while I still prefer The Crowning Of The Fire King, this record manages to keep a lot of the qualities of its predecessor.

The production is simply excellent. The raw and polished sound of the guitars are back. The drums are mixed in really well. They have a certain warmth to them, which matches perfectly with the sound of the other instruments. Same goes for the bass.

And then we have the vocals? Anders Engberg is an amazing singer. I remember saying he had become one of my favourite singers, and I'm happy to report that's still the case: simply brilliant work.

The lyrics are solid throughout the whole record. Again, very similar in quality to the previous record.

Now, I've been comparing Lamenting Of The Innocent a lot to The Crowning Of The Fire King. And I've been mostly talking about the similarities. But what are the differences?

First of all, there is an extra addition to the vocals; there are some harsh vocals spaced throughout this record. I personally find them a nice addition and they fit in really well. I think "The Hammer Of Witches" is a good example in my opinion. Overall, I think the biggest difference between the albums is pacing to be honest. The pacing of this album is ok; however, the pacing of the previous record was in my opinion perfect. If you listen through this whole record, it suffers very slightly. For my first couple of listens, I noticed that some of the tracks feel less distinct than they did on The Crowning Of The Fire King. Now once I had listened a couple of times to it and definitely when you listen to the tracks separately, this became less of an issue. But I can imagine that some people could have more issues with this. Especially on first listen.

That all being said, Lamenting Of The Innocent has a lot of quality on offer. Good quality throughout. The title track, "The Hammer Of Witches" and "Deliverance" are my favourites, but like I said the other tracks are also good. There isn't a track that reaches the heights of "Unbearable Sorrow", but to be honest that would be next to impossible, since that has become one of my absolute favourite tracks.

To conclude, I can say that while this record might not reach the same heights as the previous one, it solidified these guys as one of my favourite doom metal bands.