Sorcerer – Reign Of The Reaper Review

It’s a tale of two stories, really.

The first story is a common one: Young band forms, records a couple of demos, and then dissolves. Those demos are compiled and reissued and become something of a cult favorite, a “Hey, if you’re enjoying [higher-profile and still-active band], you have GOT to check out this rare demo stuff.” The underground fanatics and genre historians continue to fawn, the world turns, all is as it was.

That was Sorcerer, more or less. But the second story, the one we’re picking up today, is less common: long-defunct cult band reforms after a long hiatus, releases a walloper of an official debut album, and then keeps on trucking from strength to strength. All the more impressive is that Sorcerer has done this with a slowly shifting cast of personnel, meaning that vocalist Anders Engberg is now the sole remaining link to the band’s earliest days. (Drummer Richard Evensand, who played on one of Sorcerer’s pre-breakup demos, also played drums on this new album but has since left the band.)

On album number four, Reign of the Reaper, Sorcerer’s epic doom is truly firing on all cylinders, and at 47 minutes, it is the leanest album by far. This relative brevity is a very smart move, particularly given that each of the preceding three albums was longer than the one before. Thus, even though the blueprint here is largely unchanged, the album feels tighter, more elegantly constructed, and powerfully energized.

Power, by the way, is a critical word here, because epic doom metal, especially in the way that Sorcerer wields it, is often more or less the same thing as slow power metal. In particular, the guitar tandem of Kristian Niemann and Peter Hallgren consistently light up the album with fiery leads, sleek harmonized lines, and buttery-smooth soloing, such that even when a song is centered around a stout, trudging doom riff, there’s always a searing lick or counterpoint just around the corner. 

The album’s opening track, “Morning Star,” is, if we’re being honest, an almost cosmically unfair opening gambit. It kicks off with busy, martial snare drumming and epic, sweeping guitar leads before settling into a righteous stomp of a verse. Engberg’s voice is immaculate, impassioned and charismatic, ringed with the merest hint of a snarl in its low tenor range but clear and soaring when he goes for the rafters. The chorus features heroic backing choirs and a chiming guitar overtone that sounds a bit like U2’s the Edge auditioning for Manowar. About two-thirds in, Niemann and Hallgren trade slippery solos, and then around the five-minute mark the band drops into a dark, thunderous bridge and another barrel-chested choral section like something out of Caladan Brood. The song is an absurd triumph, and likely stands as the finest single song of Sorcerer’s career to date.

Release date: October 27, 2023. Label: Metal Blade Records.
Tough to follow, right? Well, the title track wisely shifts into a much slower, sullen gear. Pulling back allows for greater emphasis on Evensand’s drums, with their steady rolling bass and high-gloss fills, and the whispered backing vocals and eerie piano lend a gothic flair not too distant from Paradise Lost. Another spicy guitar solo stirs up the pot, but as always, they bring it back to a towering, memorable chorus. Sometimes on the album’s slower tunes, like the gradual fade of this title track or the golden lament of “Eternal Sleep,” Sorcerer channels a bit of Dio influence (e.g., “All the Fools Sailed Away”), while songs like “Thy Kingdom Will Come” and “Unveiling Blasphemy” land comfortably in the epic doom sweet-spot of Candlemass, with the latter in particular sporting such an extra bit of oomph that it might have wandered off of Candlemass’s glorious self-titled return to form.

All across this excellent album, Sorcerer displays an effortless-seeming professionalism that is surely the product of long hours, top-notch production, and a still-burning hunger that would put to shame most bands half their age. “Curse of Medusa” features awesome but understated backing vocals on its outro that add to the stately, epic quality, while the chorus on “The Underworld” is one of the most stirring, propulsive sections of the album. “The Underworld,” as a whole, is just littered with rudely off-handed guitar flair – a five-second mini solo to bridge out of a verse, a slightly bent note to match a vocal punch, a lilting arpeggio up high over the final chorus. Even on the album closer “Break of Dawn,” which spends most of its time perched at the exact midpoint between ballad and gothic doom lament, the guitars are nearly always busier (yet unobtrusively so) than music this slow and mournful typically warrants. And in case the verdict isn’t yet crystal-clear, friends, this is a wonderful thing.

As heavy metal fans, sometimes we yearn for music that’s raw, ragged, and pushing the limits of its own coherence. Sorcerer are the opposite of that. They are, to be blunt, classy as balls. On the tremendous Reign of the Reaper, and for as long into the future as they continue following this inspired muse, that’s a story worth telling again and again.

Posted by Dan Obstkrieg

Happily committed to the foolish pursuit of words about sounds. Not actually a dinosaur.

  1. Sir William Of Ur-Sag October 29, 2023 at 8:52 pm

    I believe I recognize this horse from a campaign in which I was a lanceman.

    Reply

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