The Wounded Kings - Embrace of The Narrow House

by skidblue

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Dartmoor’s “The Wounded Kings” combine the very essence of classic doom metal, Italian prog sensibilities and all-out occult rock with this, their debut LP. Despite having been released over a year ago – “Embrace…” is one of those UK albums which slowly burns on before the bearded hoards actually sit up and take notice, quite often before it’s a little too late (ahem, Warning for example).

Opening with a mighty three parter of a track, the album has a very distinctive but familiar production style – huge riffs in the mix, loads of fuzz and some echoing Candlemass-esque vocals, at times it almost veers into ropey goth territory, but thankfully it crawls back out of that treacherous hovel. My favourite track would have to be the final invocation “The Private Labyrinth”, with a leading riff, organ and solo freak out akin to the recent Electric Wizard material. An honorable mention should also be made to the track “Master of Witches” – a real cranked up solo which smothers the hell out a marauding riff, total tone reverence.

On the whole, a very good doom record with plenty of atmospheric miasma – I’d imagine this would work even better in the live environment, so here’s hoping their new material (set for release in November) will warrant some kind of a UK tour in the near future.

www.myspace.com/thewoundedkings2