Doom's Day

It's easy to imagine this originating from some European country you've never been to and couldn't find on a map, where little new influence seeps in, so things still sound like they did in the '80s. But some weird-era Sabbath managed to make its way over there via the black market, so the end result is this more or less great mix between Born Again-era Sabbath, Mercyful Fate and every Metal Blade-signed group that mixed early proto-doom with trad metal. But, nope, it's from Quebec. Doom's Day lay down a sound on their debut that's totally pure and good, hindered only (as always) by an often lacklustre vocal performance, but that's what you get when guys who can't really sing are trying to sing, that old spooky-ghoul performance coming out loud and flat. Apart from that, this one's also got a fun vibe and brevity on its side (the opening tune is a swift two minutes and the disc is 24 minutes!), creating a totally enjoyable listen, especially for grizzled, old metal dogs who have been down this road before. I mean, there's a song called "Sabbath Deadly Sabbath"― what's not to like?