For the follow-up to their 2012 debut album Misery Wizard, Rhode Island doom trio Pilgrim have more or less stuck with the tried and tested formula that they and a thousand other gloom merchants have peddled since the days when Pentagram, Trouble, Saint Vitus and others took Sabbath’s shtick to its logical conclusion.
They have managed to add some truly ludicrous stage names to the lexicon: to wit Krolg Splinterfist, Slayer Of Men and Count Elric The Soothsayer, although the latter has since departed the ranks. If, however, you like your doom old school and as traditional as treacle tart, you won’t go far wrong here.
Void Worship is driven by fuzzy guitar, plodding bass and pounding drums, and topped off with vocals that veer from haunted to defiant. Dwelling on appropriately arcane and esoteric subject matter, its glacial flow, mournful melodies and desolate atmosphere make for a truly epic trauermarsch. If there’s a reservation, it’s that the inclusion of so much instrumental material – particularly back to back – makes the whole thing drag at times, although maybe that’s the point.
