Black Magick Rites (LP)

Facts Black Magick Rites is Hour of 13's first full-length offering in over eight years. It also marks the first Hour of 13 album where he handles not only all instruments, but also all vocals. Indeed, Chad Davis' vocals evoke an ancient nostalgia, of doom metal before it was "doom metal" - of the days when bands like Black Sabbath, Pagan Altar, and Witchfinder General simply followed their respective muses wherever it took them. And for Davis, Black Magick Rites sees him taking his Hour of 13 muse toward a rougher, more rock 'n' roll expression and yet tinged with an emotive melancholy that resonates deeply within the soul. No, no flavor-of-the-week "occult rock" cliches here, for Davis still prizes blue-collared authenticity in his doom, but he likewise never let's it hamper his immediately recognizable songwriting, which here ever so subtly inches closer to classic deathrock territory (think the likes of early Christan Death and Voodoo Church). Naturally, with a title like Black Magick Rites, an indulgence in occultism is expected, and you can literally feel the fingers of the black beyond reaching out to you across every electric minute of this 44-minute monolith.