Year: 2020
Total Time: 63:39
Label: Metal Blade
What we are dealing with here is a “special situation” of a band that started in the late 1980’s with 2 demo tapes, fell into hiatus and when we reach 2004 something started to look alive again with a limited vinyl only compilation album that seemed to start feeding fuel to the engine and in 2015 it started working again with the release of the first album “In The Shadow Of The Inverted Cross”. In 2017 the 2nd album “The Crown Of The Fire King” saw the light of the day and now in those difficult times where the world is trying to get back on their feet, he comes the 3rd album entitled “Lamenting Of The Innocent”.
So, these Swedish epic doomsters are back again with a new album that it actually is concept since it’s dealing with one of the favorite subjects of the bands of our beloved music, nothing more and nothing less than the Middle Ages, the witches and the Inquisition. All these are very clear both from the “90’spower metal” inspired colour cover and of course from the titles of the songs.
For the record, it’s interesting to mention that the original bass player who also is a founding member Johny Hagel has left and is replaced by Justin Biggs. Hagel after the bands split up in 1992 joined the TIAMAT boat and played in 2 of their best albums, “Clouds” and “Wildhoney” and visited Greece in the bands legendary live show in 1993. Also here we have the return behind the drumkit of the old drummer Richard Evensand who played in the bands second demo while the «vanguard” of the band consisting of the two guitarists Kristian Niemann and Peter Hallgren plus the vocalist Anders Engbeerg remains stable.
Coming back to the new album now, from the first seconds of the intro till the very end, things are quite simple I could say. The big influences from Tony Martin’s BLACK SABBATH and Robert Lowe’s CANDLEMASS era are spread everywhere in the air, especially the first single of the album “The Hammer Of Witches” and also “Institoris”, Condemned” and “Dance With The Devil” are screaming CANDLEMASS from afar while on the rest of the tracks Tony Martin gets the tribute he definitely deserves and never got till now since he always stayed in the shadows of Ozzy and Dio while in BLACK SABBATH. Of course, SORCERER are much more than that. Most of the songs are full of beautiful melodies, the guitar work is impressive and together with the heavy bass and steady and strong drums, they are giving us a total of 10 songs that is characterize as rather impressive and is easily enjoyed till the end. On the pros of the record I should definitely say is the guest appearance of Johan Langguist of CANDLEMASS and the cello player Svante Henryson (has played on the albums “Eclipse” and “Fire & Ice” of Yngwie Malmsteen among many others) in the “short of” ballad “Deliverance”. The production from Ronnie Björnström has given the necessary heaviness and solidness that epic doom metal albums need and it looks like the band is now tight and experienced enough in order to achieve all those that failed to gain back in the early days. Top moments in my opinion are of course the self-titled opus and also “The Hammer Of Witches”, “Age Of The Damned” and “Condemned”, while on the other side “Institoris” and the closing track “Path To Perdition”, I cannot say that really got my attention.
If you are one of those die hard epic doom metal fans that like to seek and collect bands with a cult status, then I don’t think you need my opinion on this, you will probably end up buying more than one versions anyway. For the more normal metalheads now who wish to enjoy a very good album in the steps of the bands I mentioned above, give it a good try, I am sure you will like it very much and then want to dig in more in the works of these talented but so underrated Swedish guys.
Rating:7/10
Editor: Antonis Livanios
Related Link: SORCERER – Official Page
