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Italy's Black Oath play a very traditional style of Doom Metal, one with its roots in Black Sabbath and its sound akin to 80s legends Candlemass and Solitude Aeturnus. The vocals are clean and instead of creating pointless meandering compositions, Black Oath focus on writing actual songs with beginnings, middles and ends. The guitars are low and fuzzy but not so down-tuned that you'll be reminded of modern Gothic drivel. Black Oath's second album, Ov Qliphoth and Darkness, starts a bit slow with an overly long instrumental intro which flows into the unexciting "...for his Coming." They soon pick up steam and hit their stride with songs like "Scent of a Burning Witch" and "Witch Night Curse." These songs have dynamic riffs and occasional tempo changes that will set their hooks in your eardrums. The vocals are the weakest link in Black Oath's chain. There is nothing wrong with them; they are in tune and they don't overshadow the music, but they are a somewhat colorless, NWOBHM-inspired affair and just don't lend enough gravity or emotion to Black Oath's music. That keeps Ov Qliphoth and Darkness just a notch below awesome, but it is still and excellent slab of classic-sounding Doom Metal. It isn't Ancient Dreams or Into the Depths of Sorrow but you can do significantly worse.