"Cauldron Messiah", the debut album from German-based trio EVIL SPIRIT, is as fine a rendering of the Devil's music as one is likely to find. The group formed in 2010, releasing a pair of demos before completing their first full-length effort. With its primitive instrumental crunch and spine-tingling tempos, "Cauldron Messiah" is a sulfurous ode to all things dark and heavy.

Where "Coffin Messiah" succeeds most is in the atmosphere created by their bottom-heavy guitars. The lo-fi production and generally bleak approach to riffing gives the songs a distinctly malevolent feel, from the slow-burning moments of Doomy bliss, to the more energetic, almost Black Metal-like thunder of tracks like "Eye Of The Beholder". Marcelo Aguirre's vocals aren't exactly flawless, but he proves he is able to adapt to such changes seamlessly, his repertoire including stumbling, pained clean lines as well as harsh Black Metal rasps. As mentioned, this record isn't 100% Doom, but the crawling paces and hypnotic repetition that are the genre's hallmarks are very much present here. "Intro: Him The Almighty Power" creeps in from the foggy unknown with frightening utterances before the instruments crash and collide chaotically in conclusion. "Grey Ashes Of The Reptile" begins with a sluggish riff that owes a heavy debt to "Black Sabbath" by BLACK SABBATH, before suddenly jumping into an old-school Blackened Thrash assault about halfway through.

"Reino Sangrento" lumbers and staggers as Aguirre wails alongside sounds of despair driven by Ari Almeida's sickening riffs. The album's dark vision comes together fully with the infernal title track, which builds at a slow pace before burning out in a murky haze. The songs by themselves are plenty catchy as far as Doom goes, but the cool thing about the album is the constant feeling of dread, that this could be the soundtrack to some kind of occult ritual, out in the woods, with no idea what might happen...until it's too late. The slight deviations from straight-Doom, as on "Grey Ashes", help in this regard, breaking up the monotony that is always inevitable with longer Doom songs.

"Cauldron Messiah", with its old-school vibe and charmingly evil atmosphere that permeate the album, is a great pickup for fans of Doom Metal.