Sunday 8 November 2015

Roundtable - Dread Marches Under Bloodied Regalia (Album Review)



Release date: October 29th 2015. Label: Self Released. Format: DD

Dread Marches Under Bloodied Regalia – Tracklisting

1.A Fool's Errand 06:05
2.Corpulent Warlord 10:13
3.Consummation of the Sanguine Rite 07:41
4.The Siege of Uthur's Keep 11:14
5.Encircling Demons 03:03
6.Abarath Pass (The Road to Dominion) 10:43

Band Members:

Jono Gilmour - Electric and acoustic guitar
Joshua Hickey - Drums and percussion
Rhys Walmsley - Bass and vocals

Review:

Rountable's debut album - Dread Marches Under Bloodied Regalia - is one that's generating a lot of excitement with the Doom/Stoner Blogging community. My good pal Billy Goate of Doomed & Stoned has already give this album some very high praise indeed with his excellent recent review.

Roundtable's music is very hard to describe. Parts Doom, Sludge, Stoner, Post-Metal and a ton of Folk Metal battle style mythology to give the band a great sound of their own. The album is quite a complex musical journey and one that will take a few listens to fully understand. Some people have been saying this is what High On Fire would sound like if they ventured into the realm of Folk/Medieval Metal.

The riffs are played at a slow pace with different musical instruments drifting in and out of the equation. Second track – Corpulent Warlord – has a slight Mastodon feel though with added acoustic instruments to give Roundtable a real sense of originality and excitement. The riffs are stripped back, de-constructed and then given a Medieval feel. This is full on Sludge Battalion Metal.

The vocals are what you expect from an album such as this. Loud, brash, confident and a little bit cocky in places but that's good as these guys give you the impression they're not meant to be FUCKED WITH!!!

One of the albums strengths is how Roundtable experiment with their sound and put genres you wouldn't expect to work. Stoner-Folk. It sounds crazy I know but trust me when songs such as The Siege of Uthur's Keep and Abarath Pass (The Road to Dominion) appear you will be so engrossed you won't notice the epic run time pass you by.

Only 3 of the songs contains vocals as such as the other 3 tracks are purely instrumental but it's good to hear the band focus on the riffs instead of the vocals. The production is first rate through out and the band deserve as much credit they can possibly get for creating an epic and expansive album such as this.

I don't know what's happening with the Australian Doom/Sludge/Stoner Metal scene at the moment as they're providing a ton of awesome bands to check out. Roundtable just maybe the weirdest and most far-out band to come from the Aussie Doom/Sludge/Stoner Metal scene.

Dread Marches Under Bloodied Regalia is an excellent album. Check it out.

Words by Steve Howe

Thanks to Roundtable for the promo.

Links:

Facebook | BandCamp