Beyond the cracking open of a coffin lid an arcing spray of frost follows the first breath of the entombed, heated fumes that’d reveal portal to once dormant primitive doom and subterranean death as the travelers-within-the-tomb behind Bratislava, Slovakia-based death metal quartet HROB author this well-stylized debut full-length album. Rooted in admirable study of early 90’s death/doom metal attack ‘Brána Chladu‘ carries the tradition of the atmospheric and eerie underground classics into an appropriately surreal n’ shambling sojourn. Though the status quo within death/doom today is primarily simplistic, mindless froth-and-flash these fellowes illustrate mysterious, impossibly dark and unpredictable pathways within their craft and notably do not skimp on the maniac assail essential to the inherent sub-genre hybridization inferred.

Hrob have been around since late 2021 when folks from death/thrash metal group Krudus decided to put together a side-project focused on grimier, doomed-out ‘old school’ sounds. The current line-up solidified in 2023 via Krudus drummer Matej and Radiation bassist Vrana and produced their first demo (‘Hrob‘, 2023) not long after. That tape was somewhat crude in its riffcraft and hadn’t fully signaled the depth of what we find on ‘Brána Chladu‘ but you can find some reasonable foreshadowing within standout track “Blatové Noci” where foreboding atmosphere and use of cleaner guitar tones captured an early 90’s stoked underground death/doom metal sound. This debut album delivers well beyond expectations set by said demo, realizing authentically shambling atmospheric dread and rotten death metal pressure only hinted at prior.

Although album opener “Chrám Prázdnoty” trucks into its first minute tremolo-picking through its riffs in harried yet simplistic fashion the song which develops beyond that point ends up resembling something closer to Disembowelment successor Inverloch or perhaps a more rhythmically curious take on earlier Spectral Voice per its fusion of surreal slow-blasted death metal and funereal death/doom metal movement. These are suggested as better known guideposts meant to set expectations for a heavily dread-bound, atmospheric death/doom metal record which uses clean guitars and slow-spiraling leads to generate a hypnotic sense of movement, there is an exasperated live-in-studio quality to how they pull it off here. The seven minute spread of the opener also devolves into some almost ‘Lost Paradise‘ inspired junctures (see also: first Ceremonium LP) which helps balance out slow-trudging verses. A sense of confinement hangs over this starting point throughout, part of it being a well-contained drum recording and the band’s wielding of early 90’s death/doom metal’s tentative profundity.

From that point “Tiene Stromov” crosses the threshold of the cave mouth, enters the glowing expanse and pushes beyond a gnarly whammy dive or two and (eventually) into keyboard assisted gloom. Slow-crushed blasts and even some traditional doom metal enhanced transitional movement make for a somewhat slapdash but wriggling wrench between their fast and slow-built riffing. What Hrob have to offer beyond the usual face value mimetics of ‘old school’ death/doom metal is apparent from the get-go here as they manage a tone and pace which is always on the edge, readied to expand or interrupt any given rhythmic idea presented. I’d also particularly enjoyed the leads on this song, particularly the stretch toward the harmonized portion ~3:45 minutes which’d felt like a brilliantly dramatic peak in their action which was rarely replicated elsewhere. All of the eerie wandering and blasting hurl they’ve brought to those first two songs translate pretty well to the varying extremes explored throughout the rest of the album.

The second half of ‘Brána Chladu‘ is tonally more seamless than the first but expresses the same ratio of harried blasts and moldering doom. Though it is obviously not a one-to-one comparison I’d been reminded of the chaotic whipping and surreal saunter of ‘Musta Seremonia‘-era Rippikoulu when I’d first encountered “Zotročený Oheň” over on Side B. The rotten slap of the drums and the crusty low-gain overdrive on the main guitar tone recall the textural decay often found in early 90’s rehearsal tape level gear but presented within a great hollowed space. The demented leads which direct this song outside of the imposing vocalist’s work are among the more compelling sort of noxious authorship on this album, further lending to its olden-days sort of feel.

Some of the most glacially plodding pace on this album comes toward the end of “Zotročený Oheň”, bleeding seamlessly into closer/title track “Brána Chladu” while shaking up their movement at least a bit beyond the rhythmic language ‘ready established at that point. The ~nine minute closer is a fittingly obscure end for an album which thrives within dramatic yet uncertain movements, crossing between diabolic fixation and surrealistic resignation all of which lends the album a sense of surrealistic uncertainty more than it does outright profundity. My only complaint here is that the fade of the closer and the two instrumental/interludium elsewhere only do so much for the greater atmosphere of the record and either need to be more involved or consistent in order to wrap the whole deal together tightly.

As a debut album from a virtually unknown ‘old school’ death/doom metal band who sing in a language most folks’ve barely (if ever) heard spoken there are many things potentially working against Hrob‘s initial impact but the music isn’t the barrier. In fact any fan of underground death metal and 90’s death/doom metal in general should find ‘Brána Chladu‘ particularly well-founded and even authentic in its pummel through, invoking zero of the blind spots we typically find in young throwback minded troupes working with obviate gaps in their research/fandom. Production values are solidly in their lane, album art is certainly in the right category, and their impact remains eerie enough to remain compelling beyond numerous listens. A very high recommendation.

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