aaamusic | On 03, Dec 2012

There are times when a man must drop all pretences of eloquence and drop to their knees in worship of the all-conquering, all-consuming destructive might of the riff. This is one of those times. London based doom metallers Throne have joined forces with one of the very few unequivocal forces for good in the British Rock scene, record label New Heavy Sounds, to bring us two slabs of heavy, thick, gooey metal that seems to slow down time itself in its ominous, bassy wake, like Sabbath on industrial strength Quaaludes. But what keeps this from being yet another duo of stoned jams on a single interesting riff however, is the inspired use of dynamics to keep things interesting and the chemistry the trio obviously have, which combine to make a genuinely exciting listen, which is near enough unheard of when it comes to most stoner/doom bands at this level. Heavy Lies The Crown especially manages to sneak up on the listener in its opening thirty seconds and pounce on them when the whole band crashes in, vamping on its almost comically threatening riff. In all this is an absolute must have for any connoisseur of the darker and more insidious side of metal, and hell, even those with a passing interest in the heavy stuff could be converted to the church of doom by this blistering one-two punch of heaviness. Fuck, and furthermore, yes.

★★★★★

Will Howard