BLOOD CEREMONY

Now, here's something refreshingly different - progressive doom metal! Blood Ceremony play a style of proto-metal which never was: it mostly sounds like a fusion of the heavy, dirty riffs of early Black Sabbath with the dynamic flute-guitar interplay of Jethro Tull, with a witchy atmosphere reminiscent of Black Widow capping things off. It's a fascinating mixture which makes Blood Ceremony the best sort of retro band: they've hit on a style of music which absolutely could have emerged back in 1970 if the relevant musical trends at the time (proto- metal and pagan/prog folk) had only connected, but for some reason never quite emerged. Rather than indulging nostalgia for old bands, they fill in a hole in musical history which I never noticed but was clearly overdue a little exploration. Mindblowing.