Invoking the eternal black flame under the skeletal wings of the great redeemer Cleveland, Ohio-based apocalyptic occult heavy/doom-rock duo Ancient VVisdom acknowledge the smoking prison on fire that is our doomed planet on their sixth and most accomplished full-length album. ‘Master of the Stone‘ explores the blissful simplicity of heavy/doom metal infused songwriting as their brand of obsessive worship remains devoted to its adversarial spiritus yet better rounds their oeuvre with a far more potent heavy metal touch to its enlivening extremes. Cut down to just a minute over a half hour and void of any unnecessary filler this’ll be a record of little demand, many surprisingly heavy songs and all of them undeniably catchy.

Ancient VVisdom formed circa 2009 when Nate Jochum (Vessel of Light, ex-Integrity) was living in Austin, Texas and began to jam with his brother and guitarist Mike Jochum (ex-9 Shocks Terror, ex-Integrity) who’d moved down that way. They’d include Iron Age guitarist Justin “Ribs” Mason in their efforts from what I’ve gathered and get to work on songs which’d been inspired by everything from Townes Van Zandt to Danzig as they’d put together a surprising point of debut, a split EP with Charles Manson (‘Inner Earth Inferno‘, 2010). No doubt that’d helped get some buzz out but it was their tour supporting Ghost and The Devil’s Blood in 2011 following the release of ‘A Godlike Inferno‘ which’d caught far more curious ears with their tuneful and notably Satanic and/or Luciferian devotion in theme. Their style was a fusion of minimal folk songcraft and heavy rock which took inspiration from death rock and blues rock reflective of the acts previously mentioned. It was the exact right time to chime in with something different as a wave of gloomed-over heavy rock, doom rock and occult rock began to overtake the peaking doom metal revival happening adjacent. Looking back to ~2011 Hexvessel‘s debut was more of a fixation of mine and that’d been reason enough then to have passed on the early discography of these folks at the time.

My introduction to Ancient VVisdom came with ‘Sacrificial‘ (2014) wherein their folk rock sound first took its deepest hit of doom, cutting at least a few heavy metal adjacent pieces. Despite their alt-rock inspiration becoming even more pronounced for their follow-up I’d enjoyed that record enough to pass it among friends and discuss it as a curio with promise. A couple of records later ‘Mundus‘ (2019) would revive that sensation with a slightly more stoner metal groove heading into the first few songs and piqued my interest to some degree but not enough to write about their work. It wasn’t as if these folks were ever missing songcraft, their own distraught style/mood, nor were they entirely lacking decent heavier riffs at some point but rather that much of their discography was either inconsistent or unfocused in its presentation. In retrospect they must’ve felt the need to bring it all together as most of what ‘Master of Stone‘ does exactly right comes from picking up the pace, hitting those gothic rock gloomed vocal harmonies, and focusing on bigger riffs which just barely escape a gothic metal tag for the sake of their Satanic Sabbath grooves.

Is it just Ancient VVisdom gone doom metal? Yeah, I mean I think Mike is currently (or, was) playing bass for Nunslaughter and their guitarist Noah Buchanan engineered these recordings while also playing guitar on a few song. If you consider the Hammond organ pumped songs on ‘Mundus‘ and the last third of “Apollyon” here on this record we’re practically in extreme doom metal territory by comparison, not to mention the growls which add some extra edge to opener “Soul My Soul to Satan”. This heavier electric guitar driven sound isn’t so alien in their repertoire but bigger riff-centered pieces are an immediately welcome addition, never venturing too far outside the realm of occult rock/doom metal expectations but kinda recalling the 90’s part of my brain that still remembers records like ‘River Runs Red‘. Needless to say the first impression is bigger than expected and these folks’ve done a fine job of lining up three single worthy pieces which amplify the doom and “stoner” heavy rock push they’ve been at work on this last decade. That said they’ve done well to balance this out with a couple of acoustic-era dark folk pieces here with “World’s Demise” capping off the first half and “The Devil’s Sermon” closing the record on a similar note, pulling some serious weight in terms of one-upping the zealous, apocalyptic affect of the full listen.

If I had to peck at the album a bit it is fairly short at ~31 minutes, though all the more reasonable for having stuck to pieces worth showcasing. Ancient VVisdom‘s songcraft and production values back this up with plenty of impact, songs I’d felt worming their way into my brains pretty quick. Otherwise I’ve no qualms with the message of the lyrics though I’d found them to be flatly devotional from release to release, after spending a couple days re-familiarizing myself with the bands discography it felt like certain phrases were arguably part of the duo’s signature but also used too often. None of these admittedly finnicky issues stood out on repeat listens and instead a uniformly catchy apocalyptic rock record began to insist that I return to its wiles repeatedly. ‘Master of the Stone‘ isn’t the sort of record that I actively seek out these days but there’d been no escaping the quick work it did to catch my attention and hold it. If you’ve not been huge on their prior releases but tend to be prone to this odd stylistic realm they inhabit I’d recommend letting this record be a capable representative per your introduction. A moderately high recommendation. [79/100]

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