For years, Conan has shaped themselves into one of the heaviest bands on the planet. With their fifth release, Evidence of Immortality (Napalm Records), they maintain sole possession of that throne with their enemies’ heads at their feet. While the “caveman battle doom” pioneers have their own sound, they continue to push their own boundaries of their older releases ever so slightly to keep everyone coming back for more. 

This album is no different in its ability to outdo its predecessor, like a king does after beheading the land’s previous king and there is no way anyone could think of starting off Evidence of Immortality any better than the ten-minute epic, ‘A Cleaved Head No Longer Plots’. Newcomers to Conan will find out what they are all about just in the first few minutes as the thunderous fuzz and slamming drums blows their ears inside out. 

‘Equilibrium of Mankind’ hits later in the record and each time I lose myself as if being hypnotized. The repetitive riff at the end and a little feedback/harsh noise only intensifying the sense of falling into a portal to Hell itself made this an easy favorite. ‘Grief Sequence’ closes out the album at a whopping fourteen and a half minutes that does not bore for a moment. To sum up this instrumental phenomenon into a short description, all I can really say is this should be a boss fight soundtrack at the end of a video game. The synthesizer work really gives a whole different edge to Conan that I hope they incorporate occasionally again.

It is a rarity these days where a band is able to put out new music that completely resets the bar their previous record did. Conan has been able to do this now through each release and Evidence of Immortality has continued this tradition. It may be thrown around a lot in articles such as this, but I sincerely do not see any other albums this year topping what the Liverpool doomers have accomplished here.

Buy the album here: https://lnk.to/Conan-EOI

9 / 10

TIM LEDIN