Continuing their exploration of vague mythos and legendry available to the mountains nearby their northern Italian digs psychedelic doom metal trio CANCERVO now begin to scan the valley below for age old sites of conflict between good and evil, psychic battlegrounds where they’d enact a third ritual of possession. Another transformation achieved within their exploration of the dark heavy psych stained roots of doom metal, ‘III‘ reprises the hypnotic procession of their previous “heavy funeral psych” approach for an album which urges the listener toward black masses, twisted saints, familial sacrifice at the pyre, and a general tone of dreadful midnight hour doom in plodding advance. This deeper state of severity serves their mantra-driven ritual dirges well, not only in lending tone to the conversational development of each piece but characterization which helps to craft a memorable experience from such hypnotically droning work.

Cancervo formed circa 2020 and made their first impression upon the stoner/psychedelic rock crowd with their debut LP, a purely instrumental album that’d come across as a bluesy jam intent on conveying scenery as much as it’d experimented with fuzz-toned rhythms. It was entertaining yet a far cry from the far more captivating heavy psychedelic doom metal droning that’d been explored on its follow-up (‘II‘, 2023) which I’d reviewed favorably, appreciating the idiosyncratic droning style, it’s early 70’s inspired psychedelia, and the successful introduction of vocals to their oeuvre. Naturally comparisons to Saturnalia Temple, Ethereal Riffian and a certain era of Sleep were warranted then and now as production values retain their organic grit and vocals remain stone-faced and oddly set in their ritual as if their affect were crafted long after riffs had been sourced from jammed brain-storming sessions.

You’re gonna suffer. — On ‘III‘ the free-and-freakish slithering introduced on Cancervo‘s second album is used as a foundation to be directly built upon, less as a template and moreso a fluid yet steadily walking thread to shape an ominous sermon from. This manifests within four ~7-8 minute Sabbathian grooves each cut down to their own droning and devotional shapes which read as ritualistic and possessed to start as the nighttime grind of the organ (ah via “Intro”) kicks open the basement doors in witness of our first point of fixation, “Sacrilegious Mass“. The atmosphere of our descent is enriched with additional layers of sonic depth and widened imagined space this time around, all is yet dominated by the groaning and scalding torsion of the trio’s riffcraft but with plenty of resonant space allowed for the vocals to cast their echoes through the stone and moss covered dungeon below. The vocals on this opening piece slightly echo the baritone hymnal introduction to ‘II‘ where odd emphasis on each line generates an unnerving sense of guts-wriggling movement driven by sinister mantra. While the actual tone of the vocals might appear amateurish yet over the top to start I’d suggest that this is an important part of the character the band continue to create along with the surreal and repetitive entrancement available to each piece on the full listen.

As we continue down the endless staircase beneath the church “Burn Your Child” and “St. Barnabas” both elaborate upon this general modus of introducing a main riff as the body and the aforementioned sinister mantra in repetition as the main device of the vocals, leaving each piece its own signature declaration to stick in mind. Of course for “Burn Your Child” this is used in the bluntest way possible as they command the listener first to burn their child, then their wife. Throw in a black metallic snarl, a blasted-out jam, an early Saint Vitus-esque wah solo and this’d end up being one of the more memorable if not belligerently possessed songs on the full listen. “St. Barnabas” is otherwise the most droning, longest piece on ‘III‘ and I’d say the headiest song thanks to its almost throat-sung tone of the vocalist and the most focused slow burning progression they’ve managed to date; In scouring over the details of each song here I’d been most impressed by the weird character of Cancervo a dark and very focused ordo who’d been jamming out stoner blues rock impressionism just a couple of years ago and I think this speaks to an innate sensibility for decision-making in pursuit of concept or musical direction which has served their works well thus far with natural personae and veers their end product away from overwrought and too-typified result.

No doubt folks seeking the darker, most possessed side of stoner and psychedelic doom metal forms will find ‘III’ first but I’d likewise suggest that Cancervo‘s work carries at least a small bit of the possessed and horrified oak of Italian doom metal in their work this time around, too. Their works here read along the lines of spiritual doom metal, a type of shamanic or searching rhythm applied to a scene-setting or storytelling aspect available to their previous album now begins to cement as a core trait of their interest and I’ve found myself transfixed by this development, especially considering what a difference just a year or two has made between each release from the band thus far. Though it may not be the most dynamic, emotional or riff-crammed experience available to doom so far this year the level of fixative interest and general immersion available to this album is well worth the time of folks seeking something a bit different within their stoner/doom adjacent interest. A moderately high recommendation.

---