Heavy Lord - Chained to the world


Review By: Diego Dirtbag


Chained to the World is the third release from the Dutch Doom quartet Heavy Lord. This album takes the listener on an epic ride. It goes from ultra slow and heavier than a train full of circus elephants on tracks like Eternal Crawl and Maelstrom. To Crust/Thrash skank beats that resemble bay area thrash on tracks like Darius II and Waiting to Die. This third release shows just how talented these guys are, and just how far they can go. Displaying great riffs, good studio production, and enough anguished vocals for any fan of the genre.


The high points of this album are Darius II and Looking Into the Makers Eye. Darius II comes at you like a left hook and is way faster than anything else on the album. This song is more akin to old-school thrash than doom but it really adds to the overall flow of the record. The song has elements that remind me of bands like Entombed and Exodus and really conveys the fury and chaos that the genre is loved for. Looking Into the Makers Eye It is an 8 minute smokers delight that creeps along like the worlds slowest roller coaster. With mellow guitar melodies interlaced with groove laden riffs and great solo songs like this one is why people love doom.


My only criticism of this album is that some of the riffs carry on to long. Sounds crazy, being that this is a doom album, but true. Songs like Maelstrom which starts off great with an awesome Electric Wizard style riff, but is carried out way to long at 9 min. This riff is just not strong enough to carry this song for 9 minutes. The band tries to break it up by using melodic guitar licks, just bass for a while, and vocals over it a couple of times but fail to break up the monotony of the song. Eventually the song does have another riff (that is Awesome) but it is too little too late for this song.


Overall this album is a very strong offering from a great band and this album would accent any collection well. Chained to the world is 49 minutes of crushing riffs that make you want to light a joint the size of your arm and go comatose. With equal parts dark European Doom, Southern Louisiana Sludge, and plenty of heavy groove laden riffs with that South Texas style swagger that few doom bands can pull off with any success. Chained to the world shows Heavy Lord living up to their name.