ALBUM REVIEW: Druid Lord - "Grotesque Offerings"

By: Richard Maw

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 19/01/2018

Label: Hells Headbangers Records

Fans of Hooded Menace, Serpentine Path and traditional Floridadeath metal like Obituary or Malevolent Creation can't go wrong here; this is a great example of the doom/death genre and surely one of the musically darkest albums you could pick to play out the winter.

“Grotesque Offerings” CD//DD//LP track listing:

1). House of Gripping Gore

2). Night Gallery

3). Spells of the Necromancer

4). Evil That Haunts This Ground

5). Black Candle Séance

6). Creature Feature

7). Into The Crypts

8). Murderous Mr Hyde

9). Last Drop of Blood

10). Final Resting Place

The Review:

More doom/death of the darkest order from these dwellers of deepest... Florida. Darkness does indeed drip forth from opener “House of Dripping Gore”, but that is not to say that the likes of “Night Gallery” don't swing fairly mightily. In amongst these seven minute epics, there are some sprightly interludes (“Spells of the Necromancer”, “Into The Crypts”, “Final Resting Place”), but for the most part it is a sprawling and pitch black listen.

The song titles really do say it all here; “Evil That Haunts This Ground”, “Black Candle Séance”- deathly and doomy stuff. It is not without humour- “Creature Feature” is a fine and flighty song title and the lyrics fit nicely- but how much more black can the music be? The answer is, of course, none! The tracks across the record are mostly slow and creep forward with purpose- great riffs, some superb lead work and even guitar melodies here and there. There are changes of pace here and there- “Last Drop of Blood” is pretty fast and furious (and superb), but for the most part there is more doom than death here, I think.

Fans of Hooded Menace, Serpentine Path and traditional Florida death metal like Obituaryor Malevolent Creation can't go wrong here; this is a great example of the doom/death genre and surely one of the musically darkest albums you could pick to play out the winter.

“Grotesque Offerings” is available here

Band info: bandcamp|| facebook