Conan - Blood Eagle (2014)

Over the course of a series of releases, Liverpool’s Conan has shown themselves to be a doom act with plenty of promise, with a serious claim to being one of the heaviest bands in the world right now. Their second album Blood Eagle is out now via Napalm Records, and if this doesn’t cement them as one of the very best doom bands out there then nothing will.

More riff-based and altogether more hard-hitting than their debut Monnos, an album that was already monumentally huge, Blood Eagle is a sublimely weighty album. Down-tuned and distorted to silly levels, and with the bass pulverisingly loud, this thing is so damn heavy, lacerating whatever speakers or headphones you happen to be listening with. Conan also never fall into the trap some doom metal bands fall into of playing painfully slow, one chord a minute songs and therefore never creating a real riff that sticks in your head. Blood Eagle is full of hummable yet devastating riffs that keep the songs interesting. Very few bands are this uncompromisingly massive while still being catchy, and with Electric Wizard having moved on to more psychedelic pastures since their unbeatably bulky Come My Fanatics… and Dopethrone, Conan might be the real standard bearers for heaviness at this point.

The distant hoarse shouts and cries of dual vocalists Phil Coumbe and Jon Davis are equally ear-catching, piercing through the wall of distortion to stunning effect. Being named after a fictional barbarian and having your lyrics based on fantastical wars and events is all very well, but Conan’s vocals genuinely sound like something off a battlefield, barking orders and letting loose anguished roars. The production here too is really wonderful, the guitars remaining hugely heavy without overshadowing the rest of the mix, the drums remaining thick as blood and the vocals being highly audible. This is what basically what doom albums should aspire to sound like.

Of course being a doom metal album the general pace is that of a snail, with songs like the enormous opener Crown of Talons running for nearly ten minutes without ever approaching anything approaching fast. Part of what makes Blood Eagle such a strong album though is the wonderful mix of tempos. Crown of Talons might be a sluggardly, creeping beginning to the album, but then there’s Foehammer, a viciously up-tempo sludge monster. This variation prevents the album becoming monotonous, and also never takes away from the damningly heavy atmosphere. The rhythmic sensibilities of drummer Paul O’Neill really are Conan’s secret weapon, the slow songs maintaining a constantly driving force and the megalithic swing grooves on songs like Gravity Chasm being effortlessly engaging.



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