With Italians Gargoyle, specifically with their debut Reborn in Blasphemy, we have evidence that doom can also be a non-linear genre, just like many others, that its limits can be extended … not that I was particularly fond of where Gargoyle took their vision of doom.

The demo is extremely lo-fi, dungeonly horror variety of doom, with zero budget production, basement style narrow mix, tinniest percussion, muddy guitars and chanting cartoonish vocals pushed all the way to the forefront. Without much melody, to my ear anyway, until probably a chord sequence in The Lord of the Tentaculars, quite monotonous throughout, Reborn in Blasphemy is droning torture, on many audial levels. Reaching for entrails and pulling them out, the demo is dead set on dragging it on, purposefully, with very little acceleration (end of The Highlander is an exception), with Gargoyle trying to come up with their own Iron Man signature riffing (middle of The Highlander). The masterwork then is the « bonus » The Whisperer in the Darkness, which does have a couple of cool riffs to start out with, but ends up heaving and lugging afterwards anyway. The noodling melody and intoning vocals create the image of musicians in swaying black robes, something Gargoyle would be pleased to be associated with.

Metal historians Shadow Kingdom hold a special place in my book, but with this release they are trying to convince the mildew and rot emanating from Reborn in Blasphemy are exquisite in nature, while I simply think they rather have a very unfortunate smell to them.