Cromlech - Ave Mortis (2013) --

Full Length 

1. Ave Mortis

2. For a Red Dawn

3. Honor

4. To See Them Driven Before You

5. Of The Eagle and the Trident

6. Lend Me Your Steel

7. Amongst the Tombs

8. Shadow and Flame

Total Runtime: 1:10:25

Do you ever wonder what it’s like to smell like a warrior? Probably blood and sweat, maybe women if you’re a more suave type swordsman. To see your enemies driven before you, and to have your ale drank after the battle was a glory that warriors have enjoyed since the beginning of time. While Cromlech’s debut “Ave Mortis” may not bring all these wonderful things to you, it will damn sure make you feel them.

A lot has been going on here in Toronto; we have plenty of new, successful extreme metal bands (Sortilegia being of relative interest to that topic), and it’s done the underground some good here. However, I also find that the underground in this city is fairly lacking in successful bands of the more accessible variety. Cromlech does well to remedy this, and in such a way that they do not sound like a tribute band of any sort.

The Toronto-based Doom band with epic lyrics and progressions sound no less furious and battle ready than any of the bestial black metal in the city, but also manage to achieve a completely different type of ferocity through images of sword-and-shield warfare, much akin to many Viking metal bands, but without referring to or using Odinistic/Viking imagery. This is a good thing, considering way too many bands do such a thing without half the effect this album holds, but I digress.

The album can be best described like this: a collection of war songs taken right from an ancient civilization’s song book. Every second feels tribal, European, and epic, even with acoustics and clean vocals. Each song is an average of 5-10 minutes long, and none of them really seem to drag at all. The riffing is creative and songwriting is appropriately formed around riffs. Not a single moment seems quite out of place on this record, and that’s most definitely a good thing! Despite mostly being doom, they also have their fast and thrashy sections, such as the majority of Honour. The song begins with a slow guitar melody and continues in a still-melodic, thrashy fashion. The songs are very diverse for a theme that usually causes bands to create shallow, one-dimensional music.

The gem of this album is To See Them Driven Before You, with it’s thick, heavy doom riffing, but somehow always managing to keep up-tempo despite the grim, battle-torn atmosphere. The drums snap and pop crisply to the rumbling bass that seems to hold all the instruments and group vocals together. From start to finish, this is a great song through and through, and it feels not a second too long, despite being approximately 11 minutes.

Without giving away too much, this album is studio quality music while retaining that tribal, battle-ready feeling most rougher Epic metal bands seem to miss a lot of the time. This is definitely not a release to miss this year; get your hands on a physical copy; I know I will! Fantastic debut, and all the best to Cromlech.

(Streaming available here )