As a partial companion to the
Doom metal thread, I bounce this up since I've went further down the hole, and discovered some other bands that I think are worth mentioning.
Here are some fun bands to listen if you're in the mood to praise Satan and eat mushrooms like if you were in the 1970s:
LUCIFERNot terribly creative name aside, they're a quite fun hard rock band, not too heavy, but with many memorable hooks and with a good female singer, Johanna Sadonis. They have three albums so far, each named numerically in Led Zeppelin style, and the latest one, Lucifer III is probably the most mature one, nothing to write home about but there are plenty of cool songs, such as the lead single,
Midnight Phantom, which has a cool "Abba meets Satan" vibe.
The songs are short and catchy, sometimes derivative (you can remember Locomotive Breath in the opening track
Ghosts, and don't let the temptation to sing "In the misty morning, at the age of time" put you off from the MAGNIFICENT
Dreamer) and sometimes a bit darker and heavier (As in the doomy
Faux Pharaoh, or the first song of the first album,
Abacadabra.
YEAR OF THE GOATThese guys come from Sweden, meaning that Ghost is not the only band from there that can dabble with occult rock.
Definitively heavier than Lucifer, they have a cool and interesting mix of metal, doom, hard rock and of course the occult themes.
I consider their latest album, Novis Orbis Terrarum Ordinis which is a concept or themed album about the capital sins, their most mature and compelling yet; the lead single
Avaritia would have been a hit if made by Ghost, and there's plenty of good and also catchy stuff like
Superbia or
Luxuria.
The previous albums are darker and more raw, but there's a lot of good stuff in there; check for example the doomy and sinister mini epic
Riders of Vultures, the shorter and faster
The Key and the Gate or, from the debut, another "If Ghost would have done this, everyone would sing it" kind of song,
I'll Die for You.
There are also several long songs here and there, like the 13 minutes of
All He Has Read or the 10 of
Angels Necropolis.
The singer's voice is quite good and they have a nice variety of fast songs, easier ones and slower and doomy pieces, I'd suggest to check the latest album and then work backwards!
JESS AND THE ANCIENT ONESThe ones that started it all! the one whose songs I couldn't remember, made me google "bands that sound like Ghost" and make me discover a whole sub-genre!
Don't make the mistake of judging them by the silly name or that single song that made me assume they were a female version of Ghost, the anyway great
Astral Sabbat; they are far more diverse, interesting and melodic than I dared to hope for!
Yes, you can call them "psychedelic retrņ rock", but there's a strong diversity in their songs. They can write concise and relatively fast stuff, like
Prayer for Death and Fire or
In Levitating Secret Dreams, but they can really become evocative on the longer tracks: from the self titled debut album, which is to me their best, you can check both
Sulfur Giants (12 minutes) and
Crimson Death (11 minutes), both impressive tracks that take you on a journey.
Relatively shorter but absolutely great is
Crossroad Lightning, one of my very favorites, and on an EP that contains just three songs, the one named after the aforementioned Astral Sabbat, we have the 15 minutes of another great song,
More than Living.
They really surprised with their mix of diverse influence: classic rock, doomy vibes, psychedelic stuff, and a lot of melody. Eclectic and highly recomended on a prog forum!
=====
I know they're all fairly recent bands and that I haven't worked my way yet up to the true forefathers of the genre, but these three bands have joined my absolute favorites of the genre, Avatarium and Blood Ceremony, in providing me my fix of (supposedly) "ancient" music that praises mental trips and the dark lord Satan!
Topic: Entering the rabbit hole of retro rock / occult bands. (Read 928 times)