Mercia’s doom ‘n’ roll kings have been playing some remarkable music since their debut release in 2010, I have had the pleasure of catching them live a few times and the one thing that sticks out in general, and again on this new release is the tone of Mezzereth’s vocals. They are truly haunting, and personable in the same sort of fashion as Ozzy’s vocals without the direct similarity.

You are immediately taken and hooked from the opener, and in quick succession the standards are set in groove and fuzz. ‘Magic Man’ breaks the mould on the albums loose theme with its recognition of many-a-famous band, you’ll have to buy it to find out who, but the end statement ‘when in doubt, rock it out’ is very suitable and justifiable. There is an overall slower tempo to this release compared to the early material but this does not mean that you don’t enjoy it as much, perhaps more. If you take the mid-Cathedral period groove influence and tag this to some fuzzed out classic rock bands, Groan take you to these similar places without the need to copy their peers, but they really do love their Sabbath as one track proclaims and is titled ‘How black was our Sabbath?’.

From a historical viewpoint, Groan entertain the stories of Charles I’s death off the back of his religious obsession (some saying he brought the Church of England and Catholic Churches too close together then lost two civil wars and was eventually beheaded for high treason), Middle Age England (‘Black Death’) and some out of the box alien encounters, I kid you not, there is a piece of everything here. The most catchy and memorable number of ‘Gods of Fire’….”gods of fire, burning with desire…” this sticks in your bloody head and you cannot forget it! But this is testament to Groan’s ability to grab you with their music and make you listen to their releases over and over again. New drummer (Christ West from Trippy Wicked and the Cosmic Children of the Night) is perhaps an influence on the resulting slower tempos touched upon earlier, but this really works out well, Groan have developed into a band that can really put together some strong arrangements rather than concentrating on a riff (although “The Riff Wizard’s” work is pretty magical!).

All in all, this second release is a turnaround point, brandishing a few more versatile qualities rather than pure stoner groove, Groan should be able to take this album around Europe and the world with them, there is no reason not to like this and I would argue that with the vocal tones too, you will struggle to find a band as unique as this in this genre coming from the UK.

(7.5/10 Paul Maddison)

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