Cult of Dom Keller - Goodbye To The Light

Third helping, then, from Nottingham doomsters, navigating the familiar dank caverns and dark gothic space except on this evidence they’ve managed to find a crumbling staircase down to yet another crypt.

Titles such as ‘Deepest Pit of Emptiness’ and ‘Bring Out The Dead’ suggest the Chuckle Brothers won’t be guesting and that would be about right. What we have here is an 80s infused darkside, portentous and right side of pretentious opener ‘Hole In The Whole’ is heavily redolent of Sisters Of Mercy or St Julian, bless I’m, on downers cut with ketamine. The rest follows suit, beating a funereal path to some unlit netherworld. Among the clanking doom and gloom is a pleasingly sinister monastic drone entitled ‘Tunnel In The Clouds’ and the darkly cinematic ‘Exterminating Angels’ (see what I mean?). The latter is glorious and seemingly never ending despite clocking fewer than 7 minutes, building to an almost oppressive crescendo. Well they say playing “depressing” music can have the opposite effect of making you happy. If so then I’m positively skipping by now, readers, particularly by the magnificent ‘Astrum Argenteum’ – again that darkside 80s neo-psych alter-ego of Julian Cope raising it's skeletal hand out of the mouldering earth, while ‘Bring Out The Dead’ sounds like a deathly deconstruction of the Elevators’ ‘Reverberation’.  ‘Shambhalla Is On Fire” provides the crushing final nail in the coffin lid. On fire? Burnt to a bleedin’ crisp, more like.

“I’m only happy when it rains” went some decent-ish pop tune from a few years back. In the strange and macabre world of Dom Keller it must be absolutely pissing it down 24/7. Here’s to summer, then.