Confessor - Condemned (1991)

Confessor wipe away any typical doom rock influences with this desolate record that is not for the easily saddened. Forget retro riffs, forget Sabbath leanings, this is a complex, disorientating sound that jerks and sharply prods, often out of context with the whole doom rock genre, there's no natural flow here, just despairing cries from singer Scott Jeffreys, inaccessible riffing from Shoaf and Colon and some spectacular if somewhat epileptic drumming from Stephen Shelton who steals the show with his uncontrollable poundings.

Vocally, it's mournful cries over the solid percussion and cold yet extremely tight slabs of jerking rock, 'Alone' paints grey, inconsolable images, only on 'Uncontrolled' are the band in a mood to speedup, but don't expect this to be your usual slab of slo-mo doom sludge, it's nothing of the sort, but a potent blend of grim warnings, banshee-like wails, and a drum sound that kicks like a mule.

Unique doom through and through, which even in its bitterness remains undeniably addictive, albeit remote.

8/10