While there is no arguing the fact that doom has become a bit more universally accepted by metal fans over the last fifteen years or so, most would agree that we're still a long way from muzak versions of "Dopesmoker" being piped into doctors' offices. In today's heavy music circles, doom is a bouillon cube, a sort of bay leaf thrown into the songwriting soup of many metal albums with varying levels of success. Few bands are interested in dishing it out in it's purest form. Still fewer are actually competent at vibrating the floorboards and changing chords once every other minute the way the masters do.

Well, the UK's RAMESSES are no bouillon cube. They're a bloody rare hunk of steak that screams when you cut into it. After delivering a stormy, bone-rattling platter of delights earlier this year with "We Will Lead You to Glorious Times", they're back with this swell EP to further enhance their resume. Recorded in the same studio as those dang PORTISHEAD discs you enjoyed on the car ride to Lollapalooza, and engineered by one of the genre's favorite twiddlers (Billy Anderson), "The Tomb" is a swing-from-the-gallows good time. Vocalist Adam Richardson continues to hiss like one of those black ogres from the "Return of the King" movie, while the trash-can fills of Mark Greening solidify the grit against the croaking pulsations of guitarist Tim Bagsham. "Omniversal Horror" just tears at the eardrums with primitive, slashy guitar and lines like, "Spectral beasts on deadly night raids" , while the closer, "Unholy Outburst #3" brings tube-amp tones up front for more of a PENTAGRAM vibe. Cool artwork too, so put down that eye of newt and snag it.

- Marchman

OFFICIAL SITE: www.hcp-industries.demon.co.uk/ramesses

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