A Grand Reclamation

Former My Dying Bride guitarist Hamish Hamilton Glencross has been keeping busy since his departure from that band five years ago. In addition to playing in death-doom supergroup Vallenfyre, he's recently launched a more traditional doom project in the form of Godthrymm. The debut EP lacks the gothic darkness of some of his other endeavors, but with a full complement of veterans who have a long history together, A Grand Reclamation is a solid and efficient slice of British doom. Glencross takes vocal duties, singing cleanly with a deep and slightly hoarse delivery that reminds me a bit of Victor Griffin's. The guitar tone is a grand overdrive with a little fuzz, the authoritative crunch of old-time doom that pounds out minor keys in riffs far down on the fretboard. This has the vibe of a project put together just for fun by old friends who wanted to play together again. It's not a hybrid with any other genre, it has little to do with the members' other projects, and it's a back-to-basics sound that could fit into any old-school doom offering, but the band's enjoyment of what they're doing shines through and gives the songs, for all their bleakness, a feeling of moral uplift. The EP is quite short -- if we don't count the outro instrumental, it's three tracks -- but anyone who liked Hamish's contributions to his other bands will at least find this interesting, and it's right up the alley of traditional doom fans. https://godthrymm1.bandcamp.com/album/a-grand-reclamation.