Review of Brimstone Coven - "Brimstone Coven"

MID-MAJOR MAYHEM

By: Geoff Teach

Wheeling, West Virginia’s Brimstone Coven may not be squarely on the world’s radar yet, but your humble music critic has a distinct feeling that they soon will be. The self-proclaimed “dark occult rock” quartet (with classical metal leanings) has today released their self-titled debut on Metal Blade Records, and while “rock” is definitely the proper genre with which to define the band, there are still plenty of audible influences that range from old school proto-metal (such as Black Sabbath and Pentagram) to the stoner-metal of our modern day (like Baroness and Intronaut). Rock and metal have always made good bed-fellows, and in the case of Brimstone Coven, this pairing has once again shown itself to be a match made in heaven…or hell, depending on your preferred point of perspective.

While some may argue that a label with a name like Metal Blade should not be dabbling in the world of rock, personally, I understand this particular foray perfectly. Brimstone Coven’s album has all the trappings and attitudes of the early days of metal. Fuzzed-out guitars and bass, stoner/doom rhythms, vintage vocal stylings and harmonies, and mystic, cabalistic lyrics all combine to produce a sound that is as much rock as it is also time-honored metal. Tracks such as “Cosmic Communion”, “Behold, the Annunaki”, and “The Black Door” (my personal favorite on the ten-track effort) are perfect examples of the marriage of all these abstruse elements, and are further backed up by other well-executed psychedelic tunage such as “The Grave”, “Lord & Master”, and “The Séance”. Although the album itself seems to begin to become a bit repetitious toward its end, Brimstone Coven have still released an album that should forcefully grab the ear of any modern metal fans who enjoy Graveyard, The Sword, or even such classical artists as Deep Purple or Dio. So feel free to delve into the dark world of Brimstone Coven, my fellow metal heads, for I fully assure you that you will not be disappointed!

Keep it metal, and class dismissed!

To check out “The Grave”, just press play below!