Not to give too much away, but the final resolve of The Dark Side of Old Europa — the fifth full-length from Roman five-piece Doomraiser out Jan. 24 on Time to Kill Records — comes amid thudding drums and plodding riffs as “Loathsome Explorer Interpolation” ends on vocalist Nicola Rossi‘s repeated line, “We are all doomed.” That would very much seem to be the underlying — and often not-at-all-underlying — message of The Dark Side of Old Europa‘s plunge through Europe’s dark, violent and plague-addled history, which Doomraiser lead while also taking on the history of doom metal itself, from (of course) Black Sabbath on the intro “Passage” to shades of Celtic Frost that show themselves in the title-track and the later “H?xan” and the closer, theremin-laced dark psych on “Tauroctony (The Secret Cult of Mithras),” elements of Cathedral on “Chimera” and elsewhere, Trouble throughout, and Scott Reagers-era Saint Vitus most especially on the nine-and-a-half-minute highlight “Terminal Dusk” and also the aforementioned finale. Following the intro, “Chimera” opens the The Dark Side of Old Europa like a gateway to the abyss, with a swinging rhythm from bassist Andrea Caminiti and drummer Daniele Amatori, and riffs from Marco Montagna and Giuseppe Nantini to lead the way down into the void
