Beneath the popular masses, the Triviums, Metallicas, Iron Maidens and Dream Theaters of the sprawling metal scene, lies many a hidden treasure. To many, maybe too unpolished to be viewed as valuable, the dust won't let the lightning darkness shine through, and thereby loses its appeal for some reason. The examples are many, and within true doom/epic heavy it flourishes with bands that for some reason go unspoken of and ignored except by the ones who do their digging and still are stuck with their love for dirty production, really thick and meaty galloping guitars coupled with slow and juicy riffing, high-pitched, conservative wailing and of course standard, stellar, no-bullshit rock solid drumming. Under every log and every rock in the realm of doom, there will always be something worthwhile to be found. For those who love doom-era Black Sabbath, Cirith Ungol , Warlord and even Manilla Road, Italian-based Doomsword should be bulls-eye for you. Their glorious début, which I'm about to scribble my awe-inspired thoughts on, came out in 1999, and one can only imagine what impact this might have had if it was released ten years earlier.

Doomsword places oneself in position for battle, and as Nightcomer chants, darkness descends, and the apocalyptic bells of downfall tolls for judgement day. Slow crunchy riffs lurks in the black shadows, while the mystical, dominating vocals tells the tale of a mythological, heathen battle fought by men with sacred swords of doom. Deathmaster wields his guitar into a galloping, forceful final push towards the end of the opener Sacred Metal, before he rips his foes faces off with a sharp edged solo. In other words, there's a nice heap of heavy metal woven into this that makes for a rather headbangable transitions that you'd hear tons of in the early days. Warbringers brings inferno to the earth, and with an explosive intro fuses a anthemic old school feast of riffs that'll enslave the attention for those who are dreaming of the glorious eighties. There's also a pinch of folk mixed in here, which actually was a pretty nice surprise. It is certainly not the first thing you'd expect heading into this pagan adventure, and the nicely done folkish tones and marching melodies comes of as well-timed before picking up the pace again ending on a high note with pounding drums of war.

If there were to be anything bad about this, it might just be the lord of the rings-inspired tune Helm's Deep. Strictly speaking, the song itself isn't bad at all, to be honest, it's pretty damn great, however, the two minute narration surrounding the battle of Isengard is extremely annoying and poorly produced and thus ruins the experience completely. Luckily though, this is the only low point of the entire album, and if you're able to look past the horrible hassle you're in for a perfect true doom/epic heavy metal experience. The brilliant shape-shifting One Eyed God, invites to sing-along battle-chants and builds up into the great and speedy Return to Imrryr. More galloping, soaring vocals, blasting drums, and a solo that most definitely will cause your jaw to drop. Following the good cover of Cirith Ungol's immortal Nadsokor, comes almost-namesake Swords of Doom, bringing more of the same to the table. No bullshit riffs, solos, drumming, great vocals, tension, atmosphere and melodies that'll make you shiver with cold joy. On the March ends in familiar fashion, and there you have one of the coolest doom metal debuts I have heard in a long while. Fans of Sabbath, Cirith Ungol and Manilla Road should go nuts over this. Enjoy.