It was the year 2021 when THRONEHAMMER released their second album “Incantation Rites” that immediately blew me away. A lot of moons and even more spins later, this album has become a kind of personal “holy grail” of Doom Metal, an album that a band will probably do only once in their career, an album that should never be a benchmark for anything this band will release after that album. With these thoughts in mind, I tried to listen to the new THRONEHAMMER album “Kingslayer” as unbiased as possible. And thus it was a delight to find that the German-British five-piece has recorded another great Doom Metal album that explores the full range that the genre has to offer. The opener ‘Reign Of Steel’ starts off with a calm intro piece just developed into a storm of unbelievably grooving and driving riffs that instantly moved my head and my fist. A perfect opener! In the beginning of the eponymous ‘Kingslayer’, front girl Kat surprises with a falsetto scream in best Tom Araya style, thus introducing a song that comes along like a mix of SOLITUDE AETURNUS and Classic Metal in the spirit of the NWOBHM. This one stands in a very nice contrast with the following ‘Sacrosanct Grounds’ with its blackened feeling close to Funeral Doom. A special tension of this song is the diversified performance of Kat, who shows her vocal range from clean singing to harsh growling. The same goes for ‘Echoes Of Forgotten Battles’, which is kind of a not that blackened musical twin to ‘Sacrosanct Grounds’. The ‘Shieldbreaker’ is a flirt of THRONEHAMMER with old British Doom Death, especially the fine guitar harmonies. Next we have ‘Mortal Spheres’, a real highlight of the album. I love the fantastic guitar lines that create an atmosphere that reminds me of PARADISE LOST circa 1994 – I think this one would have been a highlight on “Icon” as well. With ‘Triumphant Emperor’ we even get a trip back to the early days of Doom Metal, when most bands of the genre sounded very basic and some had a certain hint on Thrash Metal as well. But THRONEHAMMER transferred that feeling into the present times in the best possible way. ‘Halcyon Days Of Yore’ sounds very British to me, I’m not sure if the song title is the reason or the sound of the guitars and the not too slow beat. After about an hour of Doom Metal in all its facets, ‘Ascension’ finishes “Kingslayer” in a more than dignified way. This song pulls all the stops and has a lot of turns and twists, touching the borders of Doom Death, Epic and even Post Metal. It leaves the listener with a simple, yet effective harmony guitar that echoes in the mind. The result is the wish to play the album once more to discover more of its details. With “Kingslayer”, THRONEHAMMER rightfully claimed the throne of contemporary Doom Metal. www.facebook.com/thronehammer, www.facebook.com/supremechaos.de