With a name like DOOMBRINGER and the album title "The Grand Sabbath", I immediately thought this was going to be a Doom Metal release having not heard of the band before. One look at the album cover though and you start having doubts. Even though DOOMBRINGER do incorporate some Doom elements they are, at their core, a Death Metal band with some Black Metal and Doom Metal influences.

The band themselves have been around for quite a while. Formed in 2007 they've released 2 demos, an EP and a 7" split single with their Polish country mates GOAT TYRANT. This is their first full length release.

The first track on the album "Labyrinth of Everlasting Fire / Ecstasy of Witch Blood" starts with a slow heavy doomy riff before assaulting you with some tremolo picking mayhem. The band slip seamlessly from doomier sounds, to frenzied, and then to more ominous atmospheres at the drop of a hat. Like most of the tracks on this release DOOMBRINGER manage to jam pack the song with killer riffs and ideas.

Medium Mortem's reverb laden vocals hint at the bands black metal influences. His menacing growls sound like they were recorded at the bottom of a cavernous tomb and add an element of evil  to the mix that a standard death metal growl just wouldn't manage. Occasionally on tracks such as on the latter half of "The Sleep of Thanatos" I can hear some early MAYHEM creeping in there. Not content to stick with just the growled vocals there are also some atmospheric spoken parts such as on "Nocturnal Assembly" which also features moaning/chanting.

Guitarist Sepulchral Ghoul produces some epic riffs on here especially when the pace slows down. On the faster songs the riffs are generally of the fast tremolo picked variety. This type of music isn't generally known for guitar solos, and doesn't really need them, but Sepulchral has managed to throw in a few although they are fairly low in the mix.

There's a lot going on in this album and it would take a few spins to fully absorb everything. The influences that I hear range from everything from EMPEROR, MAYHEM, BEHEMOTH, to CANDLEMASS when things get doomier. DOOMBRINGER manages to successfully combine a wide variety of genres so should appeal to fans of all types of more extreme metal. They've created a very impressive debut album here and I look forward to hearing more from them in the future. Go and check them out.