REVIEW

The third full-length album from French blackened doom metal duo Blóð further refines the project’s slow-burning, oppressive aesthetic while subtly expanding its textural scope. Formed in 2018 by multi-instrumentalist Ulrich Wegrich (Otargos, formerly of Regarde Les Hommes Tomber) and vocalist Anna Wegrich, Blóð takes its name from the Icelandic word for “blood”—a fitting signifier for music steeped in ritualistic darkness.

Named after the demon Māra, often associated with torment and spiritual affliction, the album builds upon the duo’s established foundation of sluggish, suffocating doom. At the same time, it introduces sharper elements: guitars that emit a black metal–like abrasive hiss, and low-end frequencies that surge and recede like tidal waves, creating a hypnotic atmosphere that occasionally suggests a doomgaze-adjacent sensibility.

The opening track, “Gehenna,” begins with a shamanic choral passage sung by young voices before plunging headlong into pitch-black distortion, effectively ushering the listener into an infernal descent. From there, the album subjects the senses to relentless pressure—skull-rattling volume, ear-splitting noise, and a viscous heaviness that feels inescapable, as if sealed inside total darkness.

Anna Wegrich’s vocal performance is central to the album’s impact. She shifts seamlessly between witch-like incantations, piercing screams, and anguished moans, reinforcing the music’s sense of psychological collapse. Rather than functioning as mere ornamentation, her voice acts as another instrument of tension, heightening the album’s ritualistic and destabilizing effect.

As a whole, the record can be situated among some of the more compelling recent examples of extreme doom that blur into post-metal and doomgaze territory. Listeners drawn to the oppressive atmospheres of Presence of Soul, Sinistro, or Amenra may find Blóð’s latest work particularly resonant. Notably, the duo has also brought this intensity to the stage, including an appearance at Hellfest in 2023, further underscoring the project’s growing presence within the darker reaches of the underground.