Alan “Nemtheanga” Averill sure is having himself a time. His work in the godly Primordial should need no introduction, but he also found a winning black metal formula with Blood Revolt and a bit of trad fun with Twilight of the Gods. However, despite the quality output of each, these projects still fail to fully capture the magic that he touches with his main band. Dread Sovereign – featuring Averill on bass/vocals, Primordial’s Simon O’Laoghaire on drums, and a guitarist simply named Bones – enters into the realm of traditional-ish doom. Like his other side projects, full length debut All Hell’s Martyrs still can’t quite match the Primordial spark, but also like those, it isn’t trying to. What it does is deliver one helluva slab of heft that ought to appeal greatly to doom enthusiasts and Averill die-hards alike.
The angle from which Dread Sovereign tackles many familiar Sabbathian and Pentagramish elements helps to provide them with a unique sound, largely due to the personalities involved. A combination of lumbering-but-traddy riffs and some seriously Chandler-esque wah-fueled soloing brings a smoky texture to the proceedings. When mixed with a warm, bass-heavy production and Averill’s inimitable vocal talents (the fate of our world hangs on every goddamn note), All Hell’s Martyrs takes on a decidedly epic tone. However, this is not exactly “epic doom” in the sense that Candlemass or Solitude Aeturnus are defined, but something else. Let’s just call it “doom that is epic,” or something. Either way, it’s rad.
Dread Sovereign manage to offer up a variety of speeds and levels of heft while still allowing the album to flow smoothly from track to track. “Thirteen Clergy” kicks things off on an up-tempo, catchy tone, dropping a great vocal-to-riff tandem and one irresistible chorus. By contrast, the following “Cthulhu Opiate Haze” (that title, right?) brings the plod, while some of the mid-album tracks increase the hazy jamness, merely providing the minimal backdrop over which Averill can pontificate. The band’s collective instrumental talents give even these reined-in passages a feeling of refinement, helping the album to shift from threatening to sorrowful to mourning to worshipful over the course of 67+ minutes.
This massive length will undoubtedly be a point of contention for certain listeners, and even the album’s greatest supporters would have a hard time denying that it could use a bit of trimming in certain places. Still, if the album has a fault, it comes less from the length and more from a few moments of cornball Satanism in the lyrics, particularly in “We Wield the Spear of Longinus.” Still, this minor nitpick is just that, a nitpick, and the way that song delivers a massive dynamic shift and sets off the album’s final act greatly outweighs any questionable lyrical decisions. It allows the ensuing “Cathars to Their Doom” to have a back-to-business feel before the closing title track provides both Averill’s most chilling work on the album and a dramatic, jammy wrap-up.
At that point, the arc is complete, and with each repeated listen, concerns over the album’s length seem increasingly silly and a very important point starts becoming clearer: Dread Sovereign is more than just “a doom project with Nemtheanga.” They are a band, in tune with each other’s talents and showing a great depth of collective chemistry. This, even more than the album’s quality, moves it closer to the status of Primordial than to some of Averill’s other work. Still, denying that his voice elevates the material would be foolish, and in the end, All Hell’s Martyrs is both a very solid doom album and yet another boost to the résumé of an already first ballot hall of fame vocalist.
