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Album Reviews : Roundtable – Dread Marches Under Blood Regalia

By on January 23, 2016

a2492315740_162015 was a spectacular year for Australian doom. Adelaide’s Space Bong and Perth’s Drowning Horse absolutely knocked it out of the park with a couple of the best releases of the year, ones that don’t really suit sporting references in hindsight, just to name a couple. And Melbourne 3-piece Roundtable are right up there with the best.

“A tripartite union of true riff believers; fellow travellers wending their path through the cosmic ether. Transcending mere iommic ritual, they wield might and beauty alike in pursuit of the mastery of lysergic liturgy. From the raw material of riff, rhythm and bellow, the lore of alternate realms is realised in extended compositions that explore the possibilities and limitations of their craft.”

That’s straight from their Facebook biography, and not here due to laziness and bumping up the word count, but instead as a hint into the more mystical and mesmerising nature of Dread Marches Under Bloody Regalia. It’s not just a stoner doom album to get drunk to, or a lumbering beast that sucks your soul, although there’s a touch of both.

Agalloch writing doom immediately jumps to mind.

There’s an abundance of naturalistic acoustic guitars, “Consummation of the Sanguine Rite” being the prime example, sitting in the realm of solemnly beautiful, and they’re as much a core part of the album as the doom. When things get heavy the sound leans on stoner rock; fuzzy guitars without a massive amount of distortion and often upbeat riffs that shouldn’t in theory work opposite the acoustics, but somehow do.

Complete with battle sounds, horns, the occasional horse’s neigh and audible lyrics to bring the theme home (see the album title if you missed that), this is a simply stunning, well-crafted debut.

About

Mitch Booth is the owner, designer and grand overlord of Metal Obsession. In the few seconds of spare time he has outside of this site, he also hosts a metal radio show over on PBS 106.7fm in Melbourne (Australia) and organises shows under the name Untitled Touring. You should follow him on Twitter.