Tuesday 26 February 2019

CONJURER - SIGILS (Album Review)



Release date: April 03rd 2019. Label: Self Released. Format: CD/DD

Sigils – Tracklisting

01. Will Of The Hag
02. Rusted Crown
03. Incantate
04. At Last
05. Across The Void
06. Light Of Death
07. Servitor

Members

Dustin Mendel | John Rau | Gabe Whitcomb | Brian Wyrick

Review

Sigils is the new album from USA Progressive Doom/Sludge Rockers – Conjurer. The band released their excellent debut album about three or four years ago. This album sees the band return with a more experimental, gloomier and heavier approach. This all builds up to the band playing some heavy epic psychedelic sounds. The album moves away from the harsher sounds first heard on their debut album for a more melodic tone but Sigils still has it’s fair share of heavier parts.

Opening song – Will Of The Hag – is a song built on many different musical styles such as Doom, Sludge, Stoner, Psych, Post-Hardcore and Post-Metallic vibes that all have the same part to play and that’s creating the environment for Conjurer to impress people with. The vocals are a mixture of clean vocals and harsh growls and they complement each other surprisingly well.

Second song – Rusted Crown – opens with an industrial/sludge riff that soon moves into the standard Doom/Stoner Metal sound that sees Conjurer play a slower style of music compared to the opening song. You can hear elements of Kowloon Walled City and Mastodon on this song and ends up as one of the standout songs on the album.

Third song – Incarnate – has a more direct CONAN influence on this song as everything starts really slow before Conjurer gather pace and bring a wide range of heavy Doom based riffs to the party and the results are gloriously violent especially when the sombre psychedelic sounds appear.

Fourth song - At Last – is one of the darkest songs on the album. As Conjurer settle for a standard Doom/Sludge/Stoner Metal song that fully comes alive thanks to the intense dark lyrics the band have written for this song. I had some issues with the vocals as they feel out of place at times but soon settle down for an exciting and action-packed finish.

The final three songs on the album Across The Void, Light Of Death and Servitor carries on the gloomy and almost apocalyptic tone of the album. Across The Void and Savour are perhaps the best songs held on the album. As these songs you how exciting Conjurer actually are when playing a more aggressive style of music.

The production on Sigils is superb with Conjurer’s music flowing naturally from beginning to end. The whole tone and atmosphere of Sigils is bleak but the band are not afraid to play a more hopeful style of music especially on Across The Void.

Sigils is an album that will hopefully see the Doom/Sludge/Stoner Metal community stand-up and take notice of Conjurer. As they’ve really the goods with Sigils and delivered a genuinely exciting and daring album.

Excellent and Highly Recommended.

Words by Steve Howe

Thanks to Conjurer and Leanne at Mettle Media PR for the promo. Sigils will be available to buy on CD/DD from April 3rd 2019.

Links: