'Realm Of Ash And Blood', the third album from Finland's Solothus, drops a dripping broadsword of Cimmerian carnage and staggering Death-soaked Doom delirium on the scorched landscape from which only mounds of skull dust and obsidian shards shall remain. Making its debut on 20 Buck Spin as a band ideally suited for the label, Solothus' oppressively heavy mid-paced slaughter maintains a sense of unstoppable momentum even when slowing into the glacial. Yet the land of a thousand lakes has also infused Solothus with an ear for eerie melodic sorcery and tastefully ripping guitar solos to compliment the riff after riff of hammering granite. Touching upon all things Doom the 'Realm Of Ash And Blood' luxuriates in both the somber elegance and pained heaviness of the genre, it's theatrical virtuosity and crushing simplicity. Solothus have stormed the gate, stained it with blood of pretenders and taken the jeweled throne.
