Description

Black vinyl with lyric insert. Limited 500 copies

This debut effort is pretty cool. Two innocuous words that do sum it up quite nicely. A good work of doom art, can’t think of anything to bitch about here. But allow me to elaborate for those of you expecting more than laconic laudation. This conglomeration of Florence doomheads going under the peculiar name of Fangs Of The Molossus, featuring members of Necromass, performs in a style mostly rooted in more traditional forms of the genre, but with a big helping of psychedelia and occult vibes. Sort of the usual Electric Wizard thing going on, but without drowning one in a stoned “Dopethrone” ultrafuzz, more akin to records like “Witchcult Today” or “Black Masses” and the darker leanings from drawn-out trad bands like The Wounded Kings. The vocals do have a certain Lee Dorian quality to them, though take as much cues from the aforementioned two bands in terms of texture as the rest of the music does. The riffs are simplistic, but effective and heavy; rather hypnotic, but not excessively repetitive. Plus there’s some gnarly lead guitar and sensibly dosed effect work going on, so that the whole thing doesn’t get reduced to droning background noise after a while. The Fangs don’t drown you in fuzz and feedback, it’s basically leisurely progressing psychedelic doom that doesn’t get itself lost in a maze of directionless jams. Considering the band hails from a country with a history of weird doom drinking deep of the prog rock chalice, this record is not out to mesmerise your mind with mind-bending musical trinkets, it’s feeling right at home churning out occult-inclined yet down-to-earth doom. Fangs Of The Molossus didn’t blow my mind or anything, but it certainly managed to quench said mind’s doom metal thirst for the duration of the disc rotating in my stereo. Pretty cool, will definitely revisit.

Track list:
1. Caligula
2. Cult Of The Witch Goddess
3. I Drink Your Blood
4. Fera Flagella
5. Dead King Rise