Dopelord – Songs for Satan

Blues Funeral Recordings

Release date: 06/10/2023

Running time: 39 minutes

Review by: Alun Jones

8.5/10

Poland’s mighty Dopelord return with a humongously heavy album of slow rolling, occult driven doom on “Songs for Satan”.  Released via Blues Funeral Recordings, they’re celebrating the work of Lucifer in their temple of stoner sludge, and you’re invited.  Throw on your hooded robes and join the throng! 

Of course the songs are slow and heavy, and Dopelord manage to stamp their mark on the stoner-doom template by adding melody to their powerful, drawn out compositions.  Whilst the music rumbles along demonically, the vocals add a surprising, idiosyncratic sheen.  ‘Night of the Witch’ is executed in perfect, scuzzy doom style.  ‘Evil Spell’ is skull crushingly heavy, but both tracks feature sing along choruses that will steal your soul as well.

It’s difficult to get all the lyrical intent on this album without a lyric sheet, but it’s safe to say that the message here is a direct and scathing criticism of the Catholic church in Dopelord’s home country.  Whereas many a doom band is content to revel in Hammer Horror/Dennis Wheatley themes, Dopelord have taken this typical 1970s influence and added a real-world attack on religion too.

The album is book-ended by instrumentals, the latter of which, ‘Return to the Night of the Witch’, comfortably re-establishes “Songs for Satan” in the dreamlike, mellotron-soaked occult realm.  It’s a fine album, melding inexorable, fuzzy doom with themes of devil worship and hellfire.  Dopelord’s latest is genuinely well crafted, spell binding stuff.  I wouldn’t bother sending them a Christmas card, though.

Check out Dopelord on Facebook, Instagram, Spotify and Bandcamp.

This review is presented by Platinum Al in association with Ever Metal.