I stumbled upon WARCOE in 2023 when I reviewed their sophomore album, A Place for Demons. It landed a solid 8/10 on the Metal Temple scales. So, when they came across my virtual desktop again this year with their third offering, Upon Tall Thrones, I was curious to see if they had doubled down on their promising trajectory. I mean, you never know. I first noted their line-up remained the same—always a good indication for consistency. I then saw they had switched labels to Ripple Music, one of the heavy hitters when it comes to Psych, Doom, and Stoner, as well as Morbid and Miserable Records, a 2020 start up out of Ohio, so another good sign. The final sign: The cover art just drips of Italian Doom: a bit of occult, a bit of quirk, a bit of sinister, a bit of sexy. So far so good. The true test, of course, would be putting the proverbial needle to the vinyl.

Warcoe formed in the chaos of the year of our plague, 2020. Steadily building from a solid foundation of retro-doom, the band introduced influences from other subgenres to form a unique blend of black, doom, and stoner psych. Not saying that any of this was done intentionally but listening to their three releases end-to-end you can sense an evolution there. And so Upon Tall Thrones comes to us two years since their previous album, clocking in at about 38 minutes across nine tracks. One acoustic interlude, no intro or outro.  

In the band's words, the album "erupted like a volcano" and almost wrote itself. The consistency and flow of the album certainly attests to this sentiment. Thematically I didn't pick up a central theme other than strange magicks from strange hands intermingled with hints of folk horror. Again, quintessential Italian Doom Metal.

The album starts of strong with "Octagon," a crush of unrelenting riffs and haunting monotone vocals marching us to an encounter with the BBEG in the form of a nuclear dragon, an encounter we probably won't survive. Track two, "The Wanderer" slows the tempo a tad, but never losses momentum. Next up is "I've Sat Upon Tall Thrones (But I'll Never Learn)," the album's title track. With an intro salvo reminiscent of THE SWORD, the track quickly veers into familiar WARCOE territory—infectious riffs, yearnful vocals, lyrics suggesting a dark remorse.

Mid-album, the album hits an inflection point as both tracks four and five are instrumental. "Gather in the Woods" is an acoustic number, heavily atmospheric, wafting of woodlands dark; "Flame in Your Hand" rides the lightning but in a brooding way. Breaking us out of the vocal-free zone is the bluesy "Spheres." Track seven, "Deepest Grave," is a boots-of-lead number with, pardon the pun, the gravest of riffs. As we near to the end of the album, the band slips into some fuzzy psych groove with "Brown Witch." Francesco (bass) and Carlo (drums) team up to deliver a filthy intro on this one. Great track. The album closes with the epic "Dark into Light" with some more fuzz and funk. Another standout track.

Everyone has to believe in the power of unsung heroes. WARCOE is an unsung hero for me, sticking to what they know is true—bluesy occult doom. Upon Tall Thrones is the third proof point for WARCOE. This is a band with some unholy staying power.