Paganus

Paganus are a Finnish Death/Doom five-piece who formed in 2000, only releasing a couple of demos up until this self-titled debut album back in 2008. When you take into consideration that even though there are only 4 tracks on offer here, that the album still has a runtime stopping just short of 50 minutes, you'll win no prizes for guessing the tempo at which they play their music, yep... sloooooooowwwwwww. With that said, they have enough inventiveness in their song structures to keep a vice-like grip on your imagination for every second. Every nuance, every crackle of static filled distortion and every moment of contemplative silence has been perfectly honed to serve you with one of the finest doom releases ever released. Even though the tempo is generally slow, it doesn't stop the strangulated guitars occasionally straying off to a more mid tempo pace to pound your senses with a fantastically defiant vigor. Vocally, it's not your standard Doom/Death affair either, with blackened throaty hiss interchanging between an easily intelligible shout depending on the mood of the riff that they're topping.

All of these separate ingredients blend into one incredible whole, with the excellent songwriting shining through the darkened mire and charred moods that glide around this album like restless wraiths. For fans of Graves At Sea, Burning Witch.

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