Solothus – No King Reigns Eternal (Doomentia. 2016).

Solothus – No King Reigns Eternal (Doomentia. 2016).

If you want to be crushed beneath heavy riffs, come forth. The second album by Finnish Death/Doom maniacs Solothus, this will hammer your soul beneath its morbid darkness. Starting off with an interesting bass line, the song The Betrayer quickly shows its form as a true monster. Earth shattering riffs combined with some evil melodies and deep, menacing growls come together to start your journey through a decaying realm. The second song and title track, No King Reigns Eternal, starts off at a higher tempo, around higher medium paced, getting your neck moving before trudging through the depths with some tormented, glacial Doom. The guitar lead around the 02:30-03:30 mark truly brings forth the feeling of desolation in the song, adding further emotive power. The various more melodic touches to the songs are a good contrast to the more crushing, heavier, glacial riffs and the few faster sections (though these are generally upper mid-tempo with tremolo picking rather than hyper-speed blasting), but also help to fully accentuate the different feeling of each song, whether it is the sort of mournful, melancholic sensation during parts of Darkest Stars Align (for example, the chorus, especially at the end of the song) or the melodic bridge (also used as an introduction) to the final song The Winds of Desolation, which feels as if you’re drowning in the pitch-black waters of despair. Throughout the album, the mid-paced riffs are highly memorable, and admittedly dominate a lot of this album, whilst the slower, glacial sections are imbued with a sense of dread and foreboding. As a band that is described as Epic Death/Doom, this is reflected well, as ultimately the album does flow well and feels to some extent like an extended narrative, regardless of whether it is a concept album or not. Ultimately, this is well worth getting a copy of, as this album is a beast that highlights the song writing prowess of the band which exudes the Finnish morbidity whilst possessing a unique feeling that sets it apart from other contemporaneous Finnish bands. 7.75/10.