Review: Empress – Premonition

Style: Doom/Sludge/Post (mixed vocals)
Review by: Evan
Country: Canada
Release date: October 9, 2020

Following two EPs and the tragic death of bassist Brenden Gunn, Premonition serves as Empress’ debut full album. Yet it hardly sounds like a debut: Empress sounds refined and focused. Premonition is loaded with impressive song and riff writing. 

Stylistically, Empress draws heavily from doom inspiration Elder and traditional post metal bands like ISIS. The composition of the album, as is expected for albums in this genre, alternates riff-oriented sections with softer, more ambient sections. However, in contrast to ISIS, Empress’ riffs seem more inspired by classic doom than sludge. Where Empress does draw from sludge is in the vocal style, which is a mix of ambient cleans and post-hardcore screams. 

That’s more than enough for the comparisons: Premonition stands on its own. Composition is probably the single strongest suit of the album: closer “Lion’s Blood” features two enormous, satisfying builds, and shorter track “Sepulchre” is wonderfully catchy. What makes the long songs so effective is that they avoid overstaying their welcome with riffs not being over-repeated, and ambient sections never dragging out without adding additional elements or changes; indeed, most of the “ambient” sections serve as builds to potent climaxes. 

It’s also worth talking about the riffs: for a post-metal/doom album, the riffs are both exceptionally energetic and catchy, which make the album quite a bit easier to get into than many other of the genre’s offerings. Some of the riffs even remind me of classic doom, with a riff from “Passage” sounding like it would fit on Paranoid. Layers of distortion, use of dissonance, and the vocals are more than enough to maintain the desired heavy atmosphere. The clean vocals are certainly evocative as well. Listening to this album you can truly feel the band’s pain, yet the catchier moments of the album keep it exciting even if you aren’t trying to wallow in sadness for a bit. 

Empress doesn’t drastically change the genre with this release, but they gave a competent, mature release that is as touching as it is exciting. Ultimately, Premonition rounds out a strong year in post-metal by being great in its own right. 

Recommended tracks: A Pale Wanderer, Sepulchre, Lion’s Blood
Recommended for fans of: Elder, Isis, Mastodon
Final verdict: 8.5/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Metal-Archives page

Label: Hammerheart: Petrichor – Bandcamp | Website | Facebook

Empress is:
– Peter Sacco (guitar, vocals)
– Chris Doyle (drums)