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ALUNAH
Awakening The Forest

Napalm (2014)
Rating: 7/10

Aching with folkloric majesty, British doomsters Alunah come oozing out once again from their mossy forest to drag us into the depths of their silt. Awakening The Forest is the third full-length opus from these lumbering oaths that are very much of that rather turgid doom metal ilk but which has become very popular, especially with silkier female vocals fronting the whole dew-damp horizon.

So, Alunah could well be very much participants of the current boggy bandwagon, but you know what? I actually like them for their simplicity, weight and those lofty vocal moans of Sophie Day.

Sure, it’s all very much standard doom metal quaking where the riffs of both Sophie and David Day kind of trudge without much menace out of the stoned caverns of fantasy and into the soggy streets of the West Midlands, but where these guys succeed is in their modest nature and the fact that they can write good, catchy songs.

Whereas so much of this stuff tends to have a strong 60s psych influence or tends to meander into weird and yet often self-indulgent experimentation, Alunah have simply decided to carve out large slices of good old-fashioned doom metal. Yep, there’s a lot of Black Sabbath here as the band trudges through a sturdy selection of oaken numbers, the best of these being ‘Heavy Bough’ (in spite of its rather naff video) with its churning riffs, and the opening ‘Bricket Wood Coven’ which is rather predictably witchy and spooky in its lumber.

In a sense this is more a case of easy listening when it comes to doom metal; the combo rarely lurch out of their comfort zone and prefer to construct rather basic woodland passages that could be deemed a tad overlong – I’m sure the pot-heads will disagree as they soak up the stoned atmosphere of semi-70s fuzz and treacle-like pouring. I’ve always been of the opinion that doom metal is a platter best served simple, and only a handful of bands have strayed from the path with success. For me, the best of these in the modern climate is Purson, but there’s always room for something so bulbous and that’s where Alunah comes in.

With the likes of ‘Scourge And The Kiss’ and the equally lengthy title track we tend to get more of the same slow-motion creeping and Sophie Day’s engaging vocal hums, and it all comes together well and thankfully rarely becomes a sordid drone.

While I would actually like to see the guys experiment just a tad, this album is still a perfect example of how basic doom metal can still sooth the soul, but yet I’m not sure there’s enough on offer here to compete with the current clan of witches who have been taking doom metal to new, occult-influenced levels.

Neil Arnold

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