Are you one of those people that sit up late at night and cry yourself to sleep because it’s been so long since Eyehategod and Crowbar put out albums? Well, if you are, then Spain’s Rhino might be for you. To put it mildly, Dead Throne Monarch is some heavy shit.

This is the band’s second album and they’ve definitely upped the ante here. The album starts with what sounds like the vocalist dry heaving into a toilet bowl before the first of many thunderous riffs come crashing down. Rhino could probably be best described as sludge doom but the band is not as one dimensional as that makes them sound. They might be closest to the likes of Crowbar and EyeHateGod but there is a bit of The Melvins, some Soundgarden and some punk and thrash elements thrown in for good measure.

There are a lot of really good songs on this album but I think you’re liking of this will entirely depend on the opening trio of Dead Throne Monarch, Reins of the Warlord and Earth Reclaims the Usurper. All three songs are heavy as fuck but while the title song is a devastating combination of riffs and vocals played out like Crowbar, the second is a bit more upbeat and groovy with an almost thrash sound and the lengthy Earth Reclaims… is more crawling, heavy as fuck doom metal. Funebre is the mid album epic at over fifteen minutes and is more crawling doom metal but helped immeasurably by the vocalist who sings clean and sounds like a cross between Cornell and Staley. Great stuff.  Elsewhere on the album, Wolf among Black Sheep ups the tempo while Bahamut sounds like Alice in Chains jamming with Melvins and is another great song. The album closes with the one two blow of Wendigo and Horned Crown and while the former is a gentle acoustic song, Horned Crown is an upbeat, thrashy song with another demented vocal performance.

There’s very little that can be faulted in Dead Throne Monarch. At just over seventy minutes and with 10 songs of really fucking heavy sludge metal, the album is not for the faint of heart. However if you like the whole sludge thing then Rhino has delivered a pretty essential album and I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

Rhino - Narcoleptic (Napalm Death cover)

Label - Arctic Music Group / 7th Gate

Year of Release - 2008