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Striding from the grey coasts of Portland, Oregon, Space God Ritual are a Lovecraftian Doom Metal band that, rather than toil in the crushing monolithic shadows of Thergothon and Tyranny, instead give us the retro, riff-oriented approach of Black Sabbath with a smattering of psychedelia found in bands like Krux to give a strange, theatrical take on the genre. Despite being nearly an hour long, The Unknown Wants You Dead! never outstays its welcome and gleefully takes you on a trip through the depths of R'lyeh with all the pomp and circumstance of an old Hammer movie. Singer Christian Butler (a.k.a. Alexander Olaff) has one of the most colorfully dramatic voices I've ever heard in Doom, and his eccentric, operatic delivery is a clear highlight that makes the band stand out from all the other retro wannabes.

Plenty of bands go the retro Doom route, but while they mostly just ape ideas Sabbath and Trouble had decades ago, Space God Ritual prove that being traditional isn't an excuse to be trite. The Unknown Wants You Dead! is an inventive album of arcane insanity from one of Metal's most arcane and ancient genres, and I recommend it without reservation.