If fierce Ravens Creed roar to shake consciences, Peacemaker use hard hitting doom to bitterly meditate about life and its difficulties, the challenges and the unpredictability of living, false and true friends (like music …), cultural barriers between people and/or populations, basically universal problems that seem to affect human relationships at any scale and often with tragic results, and so forth. And, as I had commented about the album teaser, Peacemaker sound like a wild beast that only seems to be tamed …Peacemaker’s brand of “doom” appears to be preferably conjugated via flows of groove-laden yet abrasive downtuned riffs over which the band knit their multifaceted, yet very traditional style. Cult 45 includes 8 tracks summing up to 33 minutes. The dynamic, crushing opening track, The Siberian Problem, was originally closing the album sampler and resembling a final explosion of energy. But this load of energy seems to be the way this band wants to enter the scene: rapid tempo changes, heavy riffage and roaring drumming propelling a killer mixture of doom distortion and old-school heavy metal, Black Sabbath and Angel Witch jammi8ng with High on Fire. Add Al Osta’s rough and sludgy singing for this and further incendiary ballads and you’ll end up with scars on your skin.
Track Follow The Rats further develops Peacemaker’s dynamic side to keep you fit with headbanging via its pumping heavy metal rhythm and raging crusty singing.
But Peacemaker’s doom can also rapidly turn to slow and plodding, dull and dry, and even almost occult, like, for example in crushing yet somber ballads like Dead Man’s Key and Sorrow Trip. In particular the huge Dead Man’s Key possesses a markedly ritual and somewhat ancient character possibly for its dark, hypnotic nursery rhyme-like development. Noise explosion by downtuned guitars, howling guitar solos, drums, cymbals and scary roars alternate with “silent” intervals where Al Osta whispers over the dull vibrations of a few piano keys. While listening to this great song, I would not be surprised to hear the original lyrics abruptly switching to one of those blood-chilling, eerie, bitterly moral tales by Yeats!
In these slow ballads Al Osta’s rough and deep vocals are not as raging as in some of the faster tracks and in Ravens Creed (I still remember his devastating performance with Ravens Creed at the Live Evil Festival two years ago …), but Al’s narrative skill is perfect for materializing the darkest sides of Peacemaker’s songs.
A further serving of slow Sabbathian, fuzzy doom comes via track Sorrow Trip, the seventh in the tracklist. This is another slow-moving doomy ballad lead by a catchy swinging rhythm and drenched with an almost laid-back swampy bluesy vibe alternating with strained, dreamy desert psychedelia. But Al Osta’s raucous vocals will bring you down to earth while simply whispering another sinister tale … Beside the remarkable variation style of heavy doom metal across the album, there is further surprise coming from totally acoustic and delicate, folkish songs like the instrumental, guitar- and keyboard-driven Mane of Serpents. Therefore the drumming solo introducing the following track Soul Cheater will seem even more rumbling and solid and the fast thrashy riffs plus the shots of raspy chanting will crack your neck. Some great metal here …Peacemaker’s heavy metal soul is further conjugated in the killer solos dominating the core of the heavy track Journey of the Faithful where pace is slightly slowing down, maybe as a transition to the swinging doom ballad that will follow, Sorrow Trip. The album is closed by Grey Skies, another somber and dreamy acoustic song which starts after the last riffs of ballad Sorrow Trip have slowed down to pachidermic heaviness. Same touch as Mane of Serpents, somber and melancholic and little by little contaminated by some spacey psychedelic effects.
Is it an unexpected way for closing an album full of granitic tunes? Yes, maybe, but read the band’s words about this intimate acoustic outro: “ The North of England has a certain melancholy in the air. You look to the sky. You see nothing.”. How doomy! Cult 45. What a crushing album … Well, Peacemaker did it, we have another kickass, heavy doomy metal band. Album Cult45 is full of killer, addictive tunes and features to discover. Moreover, all in all, the album itself is a surprise compared to the album teaser. The latter was announcing a dominantly Sabbathian doom band, whereas the full album revealed that Peacemaker are also a splendid bone-crushing heavy metal band. Peacemaker’s album Cult45 came out during June 2013 and can be purchased via Bandcamp (full stream) or via the band’s merch website via the links below.
1. The Siberian Problem
2. Follow The Rats
3. Dead Man's Keys
4. Mane of Serpents
5. Soul Cheater
6. Journey of the Faithful
7. Sorrow Trip
8. Grey Sky
Words: Marilena Moroni
Bandcamp
Peacemaker Merch | Big Cartel