Druid Lord – Relics Of The Dead Review

Horror and metal have intertwined all the way back to the moment Black Sabbath saw the marquee for Mario Bava’s Black Sabbath. Countless bands since have turned to horror–both fiction and non–for inspiration. While the inspiration manifests in different ways, there is a certain class of band that just translates the storytelling of horror over hideous, sinister metal of death. Deceased jump first to mind. There is something about the way King Fowley can articulate a story across the band’s death/thrash just clicks. Sick riffs, horrid (but decipherable) vocals, and an atmosphere of spooky terror combine in a balanced formula.

The same balanced equation applies to Orlando, Florida’s Druid Lord. While the band’s death/doom stylings are a far cry from the thrashing frenzy of Deceased, Druid Lord find the same balance while flourishing in the murky fog of doom. If their excellent (and somewhat underrated) sophomore album, Grotesque Offerings felt like the band coming into their own, filling out the sound with thick-as-molasses riffs and a balanced pacing between the slower, weighted passages and the breakout mid-pace drives, then with their third album, Relics Of The Dead, Druid Lord are honing their technique into a more refined specimen.

The album opens with the title track and three quick changes. Campy horror synths make for a brief intro before the full band rips into gear, and they come out in full force. Vigorous blasts burst into the soundscape, vicous riffs digging deeper into the grave soil as the lead guitar cries in desperate wails only to be smothered with oncoming groove. There’s a touch of Immolation in the sadistic organ-grinder that Druid Lord conjure for a spell before returning to the comfort of the dripping gore of their core sound. It makes for an intriguing opener for new fans and those who’ve been following the band since their debut days: The beauty of Relics is these little twists and turns that weave their way into the crypts of Druid Lord’s core sound.

Take, for instance, the third track. “Mangled As The Hideous Fiend.” Any fan of the Finnish death or death/doom classics will find so much to love in the twists and turns on offer here. From the twisted, grooved, angular approach at the beginning to the brutally open old school drive of the verse to the eerie, hallowed leads that echo with reverberations of Rippikoulu. Yet the vocals are still decipherable as they spew tales of vile horror: A callback to times of olde, perhaps, and one that contemporary peers such as Temple Of Void have latched onto with similarly excellent results. The bit of Spanish guitar on the “Nightside Conjuring” falls in step with the pacing of the album, adding to the atmosphere that is only increased as the tritonal tremolo at the spark of “Immolated Into Ashes” catches fire before smoldering into a labored doom groove.

Such a bridge is what sells Druid Lord so well–there is so much balance in Relics Of The Dead. Between the odd song structures and punishing low end of Finnish classics like Rippikoulu to more modern-age highlights such as Hooded Menace. Their sound extends to the modern American death/doom delivered straightforward a la Temple Of Void or the more haunting and less structured, more ethereal vibe of Spectral Voice, Druid Lord strike a perfect balance while still appealing to those who still cling to the campy horror of Razorback Records or Horror Pain Gore Death. Relics Of The Dead is a testament to the fact that Druid Lord should be spoken of with the best of contemporary death/doom, preferably in the voice of the Crypt Keeper.