As they move well into their second decade as a unit, Liverpool’s Conan once again stick to their chosen path. Album number five has arrived, and once more their steamroller sound is primed to flatten anything in its path. Full of colossal down tuning and distortion, Evidence of Immortality is another punishing slab of the doom metal that only Conan and a few peers can deliver.
It’s been four years since 2018’s Existential Void Guardian was released, although last year’s Live at Freak Valley was enough to sate the appetite of most fans. Evidence of Immortality sees Conan in imperious form, with the album bookended by two gargantuan tracks. The opener, “A Cleaved Head No Longer Plots” provides all the evidence you need that Conan stick closely to their blueprint. It’s a ten-minute rollercoaster of rage and fierce riffs, with Jon Davis spitting his lyrics out with venomous bile.
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“Ritual of Anonymity” sees the band hit the accelerator, find a huge groove which throbs like a massive hangover and picks a rhythm which will have you nodding along in an instance. Chris Fielding’s huge driving bass lines propel the song forward, massive power chords and harrowed vocals all adding to the raging maelstrom. It’s a boiling, blistering cauldron of caveman doom which requires continued stoking.
Continue through the album and you’ll discover more swirling pain as the tempo shifts in the unholy way that Conan manage with such ease. The riffs are insanely brutal, forcing the listener to shift position to avoid being flattened by the onslaught. Dive in deep and face the “Equilibrium of Mankind”, a powerful eight-minute crusher of a song. It’s followed by the equally intense and formidable “Righteous Alliance” which is of similar intensity.
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And then you reach the other side of the bookend and what a monster to finish with. Fourteen minutes of skull splitting, thick-riffed slow down metal that rumbles and brews with a sinister malevolence that sends shivers down the backbone. Yes, “Grief Sequence” is a song of such gargantuan proportions that you’d be unsurprised to see it feature in a disaster movie. With former member Dave Perry guesting on the track, it’s the ultimate conclusion to an album that is sonically devastating, aurally abusive and incredibly brutal. It’s superb from start to finish. Hail Conan!
Evidence of Immortality is out on August 19th
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