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CONAN
Existential Void Guardian

Napalm (2018)
Rating: 7/10

Emerging from the peat bogs of England is Conan; quicksand grooves and slow-motion slug movers of the apocalypse propelled to your bloodshot eyes by lead track ‘Volt Thrower’. With its Ralph Bakshi-styled animated video, it presents the band as red-eyed horseman grinding out repetitive riffs which act as a soundtrack to shifting snails.

But in spite of apparent limitations within the track’s structure there’s that effortless yet juddering percussion of new drummer Johnny King, whose kicks, prods and harmful jabs bring the track out of the murk and into the light. The whole song heaves and churns like some mushy bog of delight; bubbling and rolling like some soiled behemoth as the desperate cries of Jon Davis take Ozzy Osbourne’s mournful wails to new, tortured levels.

Existential Void Guardian is the fourth silted outing from this Scouse troupe; a fetid ensemble that dabbles in dirty fuzz and organic trembles, resulting in thunderous doom that reeks of menace. Everything about this relatively short opus (35-minutes) feels gargantuan, even if it essentially follows familiar current doom metal paths.

There is an air of stoned horror as opener ‘’Prosper On The Path’ grinds like some slow-moving and bestial Swedish offspring; the once loose, lethal n’ spitting chainsaw riffs slowed to not quite a crawl. Meanwhile, ‘Eye To Eye To Eye’ provides greasier values; a catchy and insistent monolith with up-tempo punky gallops then slower, heaving segments laced by those ever-wailing vocals.

In a sense it is doom metal kept rather concise and simple; rarely do such rumbling riffs drag the listener into impenetrable mires. Instead, we get infectious traipses based around that booming percussion and those downright dirty soil-coated riffs.

The brief and thrashing mayhem of ‘Paincantation’ gives way to the laborious ooze of ‘Amidst The Infinite’, where the guitar sound is a mulch-clogged and backbreaking drone injected by occasional percussive stabs. It’s the slowest lump of mud on the opus as Davis howls “Hand that once would crush, frail and weak and wasted, Iron fist now made of bone”. It’s far from being eventful in its rather one-dimensional yet suspense filled trudge, but those riffs do soak the ears in sediment.

The same goes for the crushing chug of ‘Vexxagon’, as the frontman moans “Is this the end of days. Return to vengeful state. Call to arms. Vastness of the void”. The riffs then slow to a consuming haze to the heartbeat of the sullen drum plods, and for me it’s the drums that are the star of the show throughout – King bringing enough bony shots to enable the album to rise beyond a dirty drool of banality.

Closer ‘Eternal Silent Legend’ toils away with little expression beyond its crawling sludge riffs and distant vocal echoes, but King’s sticks jab away, fending off the heavy clouds of fuzz. And when Davis calls “Aching mortals, vying for life” I realize how such lyrics are symbolic of Conan’s latest trip, because Existential Void Guardian could and should have offered so much more than its rather snoozing, creeping structures; ‘Volt Thrower’ showcasing the potential of a band that has yet to reach halfway on those mist-enshrouded mountains.

With so many bands coughing out similar aches and pains, Conan’s new born behemoth feels a bit restricted and straight-laced, but I’m sure the crowds of gluey stoners will applaud such motions.

Neil Arnold

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