CENTURIONS GHOST
A Sign Of Things To Come
(I Hate Records)
34:20min

Though this quintet from the London area might provoke the hastily exclamation "CATHEDRAL – copy"; with ‘Devil Disciple’ – the catchy, driving opener of their debut album – you should not rate this band by the first song on this fantastic album. CENTURIONS GHOST are way more filthy sounding and they have way more gloom and sheer morbidity to offer than their supposedly most important musical inspiration. The vocals of James Begley are really close to those of Lee Dorrian, but with the dirty, raw production, the skillful, moody use of spoken passages, samples, Hammond organ and keyboards plus less 70s vibe in the guitar section, but more doom and heaviness than CATHEDRAL "A Sign Of Things To Come" has obviously enough potential to escape the inevitable shadow of that particular band. CENTURIONS GHOST’s debut after an already excellent three-track demo in 2003 (which you can still download in its entirety from the band’s website) is a gloomy, foreboding, malevolent doom monster offering crushing hateful crunch as well as sick and twisted melodies. Songs like ‘Stigmartysm’ or the eight minute opus ‘Misery Serenade’ are prime examples for CENTURIONS GHOST outstanding qualities, this album is energetic, diversified, dedicated and simply fucking heavy, easily one of the best Doom albums 2005 and also one of the best debuts I’ve heard this year!; highly recommended newcomer! www.centurionsghost.com , http://ihaterecords.cjb.net

Stefan Franke

Stefan Franke

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