Rituals Of The Oak - Hour Of Judgement
666 Records

file under doom metal

Erik: The from Sydney hailing doom metal band Ritual Of The Oak has a female front woman called Sabine, something you do not expect from a band that plays music like bands as Candlemass
Solitude Aeternus, Pentagram, Solstice and Warning. The comparison to bands like the Belgian Serpent Cult or the English Mourn are just too easy as they have a female singer as well.

Anyway, as a debut ‘Hour Of Judgement’ is a very good start. I would have liked the CD to be richer in sound, like more guitar solo’s (you know, the lost art…) and with the drums more to the front and less attention to the vocals, but still, with easy and simple riffs they succeed in just fifty minutes in convincing me of their talents. Songs like ‘The Spell Of Doom’, ‘Standing In The House Of Suffering’ and ‘Drown The Wood In Blood’ are a great listen and show promise in a genre that seems to be dying out. Admid that the bands I named are either dead or far beyond their best. So we can be happy with Ritual Of The Oak. Even more happy since we know that they will come to the Doom Shall Rise Festival in 2010. Whether that means they will play in the Netherlands in another. We can only hope. One to keep an eye out for.

Erik stigmatizes this release with: 80/100 (details)

http://www.myspace.com/ritualsoftheoak