Noctum Sweden

"Step into the time machine and let Noctum take you on a time trip back to the early 70s (bring a bong if you wish). Noctum delivers veeeeeery old school, blues-driven, doom metal which seeks back to the very roots of heavy metal music, drawing particularly on Black Sabbath, but also on bands like Led Zeppelin, Sir Lord Baltimore and Budgie - and I'm sure they've listened to their share of Pentagram, too.

Even the production - while free from noise and clipping, and with no instruments obscuring others in the mix - pretty much manages to capture an authentic 70s hard rock sound.

Musically, they sound a lot like early Black Sabbath, and some might bash them for being a bunch of copycats. However, I think that Noctum deliver on "The Seance". The music is dark and heavy, but with a catchy blues-rock based drive, and the drumming sounds bong-rippingly chaotic (just like Bill Ward). The vocals are very clear, raw and unprocessed - there is not a lot of technique there, just belting (David Indelöf does not, by the way, sound at all like Ozzy), and some younger listeners might require a couple of listens to get used to the raw production quality of the vocals.

If you want to criticize Noctum for being Sabbath-clones, you might hav ea point, but I think that their style is awesome, and I really appreciate how they go back to the very roots of heavy metal music.

This certainly belong to the satanic bong-ripping class of doom metal, and if you like Sabbath, Pentagram and stoner metal and authentic 70s hardrock generally, this should be right up your alley.

(review originally posted on metalmusicarchives.com)"