PARISH – Parish (2022) | Album / EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine

PARISH
Parish

Crypt Of The Wizard (2022)
Rating: 9/10

The London heavy metal shop Crypt Of The Wizard is starting to become a record label to contend with now, especially after the delights of Riders Of Rohan’s self-titled debut and this new Parish release.

This London-based trio impressed with 2020’s God’s Right Hand EP, and their talents have been stretched further now with this ten-track affair which nods to the halcyon days of rainy late 80s and early 90s doom metal as well as proto-metal from the 70s.

This sort of stuff has got to be done right and Parish exudes a confidence in marvelling such designs. Clearly without the influence of Black Sabbath none of this stuff would exist and the sound of the Sabs is ever-present, but if you like stuff like Witchfinder General then you’ll dig Parish.

This is simplistic folk horror set to Tony Iommi riffage, whereby you get the contrasts of darkness and light but at the same time want to slap The Wicker Man on the dvd player straight afterwards. Vocally there’s no real surprises to the tone; it’s wistful, ethereal and not exactly a million miles removed from Ghost B.C.. Y’know, that eerie, spectral wafting. “Something strange is afoot in the parish” – a quintessentially British warning if I’ve ever heard one, as the combo effectively and wistfully swirls across the ancient horizon like a dawn fog.

Of course, it’s not the most original thing you’ll hear this side of the 70s, but it has a haunting charm mainly due to its simplicity. There’s the smooth vocal approach of James Paulley and the equally enchanting lyrics, however generic they may be. In fact it’s all here, one rusty cauldron of bewitching 70s rock that swipes at Budgie and reeks of Birmingham’s charcoal-tinged skies. Also, slight flashes of folkiness and psychedelia drift in even when they aren’t apparent. And that’s the beauty of Parish and their authentic rambles across Britain’s cursed moorlands.

You hear a track like the lumbering groove of ‘Lucinda’ or the mesmeric ‘Cutting The Stone’ and you know it’s obviously Sabbath. But whereas every other band has seemingly drafted in their mystical aunt for vocal duties, Parish just trudges without necessary frills. ‘Pilgrim’s End’, ‘Creation Myth’ and the Black Sabbath Vol. 4 inspired ‘Gaolbreak’ are steadfast titans of rural terror.

Paulley, alongside bassist Tony Hughes and drummer Joe Bulmer, have crafted a wondrously esoteric composition fraught with greyness yet instilled with a haunting beauty that the likes of Pagan Altar down to Wishbone Ash would be proud of. This debut platter will accompany me as my soundtrack to those strolls around old and misty country lanes where I’m often forced to look over my shoulder in case some M.R. James creation has just stepped from the hedgerows. This is doom… now meet yours.

Neil Arnold

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