The truly great Metal tends to fall into my lap / ears when I least expect it, lest I trawl the internet with the words "Power / Death / Doom / Prog Metal" trying to find new bands. Recently I received the promo of their sophomore album, "II: Void Worship". I went in expecting to find an archetypal Doom metal sound. I did indeed find some delicious Doom, but it is far from archetypal.

"Master's Chamber" is a 10-minute long monster that drudges its way out of a swamp full of Sludge; one of the lowest tempo Doom songs I have ever heard. It is mixed with a crude, but effective, layering of ambient guitars which make the atmosphere all the more eerie. Whoever the master is, he must enjoy the dark, torch-lit, skull-lined walls of his chambers. Slowly and subtly the song evolves as we delve deeper. "The Paladin" is about as upbeat as any track on this album gets; a thick, dirty hunk of Metal with cranked gain; almost BLACK SABBATH, but most definitely PILGRIM. The glum atmosphere and lack of a single note that sounds 'happy' is almost satirical, a perversion of the meaning of the word 'paladin'. Not only effective songwriting, but quirky and intellectual storytelling. Easily my favorite on the album.

"In the Presence of Evil" is an instrumental that evokes its namesake without the presence of vocals. The dark, foreboding chord progressions tell their story, embellished by lashings of lead guitars that weigh heavily with their dark melancholy. "Away from here" ends the journey with a track that is only ever so slightly faster than "Master's Chamber", bringing with it an even more distorted, discordant collection of sounds. Paying close attention brings to light the surprisingly powerful voice of The Wizard, albeit nearly drowned out by the sludge and swamping of the guitars. I could fall back on a comparison to CANDLEMASS, but admittedly, this particular kind of music is very new to me.

Let's face it, Doom, like a few other more extremities of the metal spectrum, are quite inaccessible to many, lest not requiring patience and an open mind to get into it and embrace it. At the very least, "The Paladin" is a great point to start, for I would certainly point newcomers in the direction of PILGRIM.