Year: 2019
Total Time: 55:07
Label: Dark Descent Records
CRYPT SERMON is a band from Philadelphia, USA, who turned lots of heads in the epic Doom Metal scene four years ago with their debut “Out of the Garden”. They may have taken their time to prepare their second album, but the anticipation was worth the wait. The heritage of CANDLEMASS and SOLITUDE AETURNUS meets the traditional Heavy Metal sound and CRYPT SERMON very simply gave us one of the best albums of this year.
“Ruins of Fading Light” has everything: heavy riffs, epic leads, acoustic guitars, impressive solos, anthemic choruses, variety of rhythms and vocals. The singer Brooks Wilson uses growls, melodies, low and high vocals to tell us his stories of faith, life, death and loss. The drummer Enrique Sagarnaga plays a lot faster compared to the band’s debut, offering this way a wider variety of tempos.
The album was produced once again by Arthur Rizk (Power Trip, Eternal Champion) who helped to highlight the guitar skills of Steve Jansson and James Lipczynski. On the bass we have a new addition, the talented Frank Chin from the disbanded (?) VEKTOR. The album consists of seven songs ranging from five to nine minutes and from three small interludes that -together with the use of some instruments such as harps, flutes and synthesizers – complement the “medieval” atmosphere of “The Ruins of Fading Light”. The band said they wanted to write an album showing how Doom Metal could be instead of what is should be. They’ve spent many hours in the studio, improving their sound and writing music that sounds entertaining to them above all. You can understand this from the quality of songs like “Key of Solomon” or “Christ is Dead” (with its BATHORY influences), which have been refined until the very last second.
2019 is an exquisite year for the genre (ATLANTEAN CODEX, ORODRUIN, ISOLE) and CRYPT SERMON come triumphantly to consolidate their position as one of the leading names of the genre.
Rating: 8.5/10
Dimitris Benetatos
Related Link: CRYPT SERMON – Facebook Page
