Svart Records 2021. Amazing traditional Doom Metal - 4th Album ! Clear vinyl edition, limited to 400 pcs. Gatefold double lp with silver foil blocking and a booklet. First time on vinyl!
For Fans of Reverend Bizarre, Black Sabbath (Ozzy - period), Saint Vitus, Witchfinder General or Count Raven
As with previous efforts, the musicianship is as tight and vibrant as ever. Kimi Karki's guitar tone remains one of the best in doom, domineering over all with a watery cadence that lends itself well to both melodic flourishes and crushing chords. The vocals also manage to deliver in Chritus' typical Ozzy-esque fashion. There are times where they come off rather haggard, particularly when the more distorted layering is applied, but they show a fair amount of dexterity throughout.
If The Black Powder isn't the best Lord Vicar album overall, then it's at least their strongest since their 2008 debut,
The Black Powder is the fourth album from Lord Vicar. It was, like the previous album Gates of Flesh, recorded by audio wizard Joona Lukala at Noise for Fiction studio in Turku, Finland. The studio has the benefit of a huge live room which gave the band the opportunity to capture a sound that breathes with the ambience of the space, but maintains the sonic weight for which they are rightly known.
This album is a return to longer form, and even more progressive song structures, but the punchier material is also provided with merciless precision, as well as soothing acoustic moments. The songwriting duties are shared by Kimi and Gareth, also Chritus providing lyrical output.
The album contains a loose lyrical concept relating to mankind's endless lack of reason and weakness of stability, resulting to violence, war, manipulation of children, and numbing our minds in order to shut out the horror that is the reality we live in. We blow the black lines to feel good. This takes place generation after generation, in an endless cycle of standing and falling. Musically and lyrically the album covers a wide spectrum of textures from the all out punky attack of 'The Temple in the Bedrock', fragile beauty of 'Nightmare', to the oppressive menace of the more intense moments of 'Sulphur, Charcoal and Saltpetre'. This album is a grower, meant to be listened repeatedly, full of subtle details that reveal themselves with each subsequent listen.
Side A
1. Sulphur, Charcoal and Saltpetre 17:16
Side B
2. Descent 08:09
3. World Encircled 06:36
4. Levitation 04:58
Side C
5. The Temple in the Bedrock 08:00
6. Black Lines 06:52
7. Impact 02:59
Side D
8. Nightmare 04:03
9. A Second Chance 10:42
