Profound Lore is a very, very reliable label, and My Dying Bride, Vallenfyre, and Anathema are all very, very good bands, so this debut from Godthrymm, being released on Profound Lore and featuring members or ex-members of all of the above, is just bound to be fantastic. However, it’s not quite what I was thinking: I was imagining things ending up more Vallenfyre than anything, but there’s plenty of clean crooning here, and the doom is more polite and stately than antagonistic and sludgey. 

So the My Dying Bride and Anathema reference points are apt, as the title track, which opens the album, proves, all 7:38 of it huge, grandiose, flowing, definitely nodding reverently back to the Peaceville Three. This album is just full of commanding, mature, regal doom, the trio of Hamish Glencross, Shaun Taylor-Steels, and Bob Crolia flexing their impressive talents and experience and crafting songs like the excellent, Paradise Lost-worshipping “Among The Exalted” and the gigantic, open-air “The Sea As My Grave”. “The Grand Reclamation” is a showcase for the vocals, which border on trad-metal histrionics in the most delightful of ways, and the tempo even picks up into some poser-slaying bpms in this one, too. “Cursed Are The Many” begins to wind things down with a massive 9:19 filled with plodding double-bass-led guitar heroics and trad-doom glory; “Chasmic Sorrows” closes things off with a gorgeous five minutes of instrumental doom perfection. Highly recommend this one for all doom fans, even if your personal prediliction leans a bit uglier.