Firelord

Turin's newest doom band, Firelord, have been tearing up Italy for the last five years. Formed by singer/guitarist Mario E. Bussini from the remnants of his previous doom project Saint Judas, Firelord's style is a little rockier and funkier than most doom bands currently plying their sullen trade.

'Time For Vengeance' is a really good song for kicking off an EP - its balls are in your face before you can take a breath and it has an epic singalong chorus that seems made for three hundred people to roar along to. The band's swagger is in the riffs, which seem to take equal cues from Stone Temple Pilots and early Saint Vitus - if ever there was a case for grunge-doom being a viable musical genre, this is it; that's intended as a compliment, by the way.

Bussini's gruff holler sounds akin to a less pitchy and shrieky John Garcia of Kyuss. His intonation and lyrical style is obviously influenced by Scott "Wino" Weinrich of the aforementioned Saint Vitus, breaking into a pretty cool-sounding death growl towards the end of 'Riding With the Death'.

The stand-out track here is Earthride cover  'Fighting-Devils Inside of You', on the strength of its bad-ass wah riff and the unabashed way it channels early Black Sabbath in a really authentic yet modern way. The one problem with doom bands is that many of them don't realise that sometimes, it's good to play fast. You'll notice the best doom bands play fast when the song needs it. Firelord have a knack for gradually speeding up a song until you find yourself hurtling towards a pretty stunning finish.  

#Doom-metal #Firelord #stoner rock #Stubble #Rob Batchelor