��� Really digging this new one from UK heavies Cold In Berlin. With their third full-length, the band offers a compelling mix of 80's goth rock moodiness and molten doom metal that's thankfully free of the sort of flowery, funereal moping you might otherwise expect from that combo. It's something grittier and tougher, compared by some as a cross "between Cathedral and Siouxsie Sioux". On paper, that might seem an odd confluence of sounds, but on Comfort of Loss & Dust, I can definitely see where people might draw comparisons between Cold In Berlin singer Maya and the chilling, swoonsome wail of a younger Siouxsie; the combination of those dramatic vocals and the band's churning, slow-motion heaviness results in a distinctive, doleful take on modern doom metal that's flecked with a peculiar witchiness.

��� Maya's singing is definitely a big draw, a nice change of pace from the seemingly endless parade of Coven worship that seemed to haunt the doom scene in recent years. And the grinding, ultra-Sabbathoid riffage and fuzz-blasted heaviness nods towards the influence of the aforementioned Cathedral as well as Electric Wizard's earlier stuff. There's moody, reverb-drenched guitar that starts to emerge as the album lumbers through these ten songs, a hint of an older gothy melody seeping up through some of the album's more brooding passages of thunderous doom, and the band's apparent love of classic goth/post-punk continues to inform the songwriting. Some of the standout tracks include "Pray For Us", where Maya's wail is met with a deep, gothy male voice on the powerful chorus, while the drums shift into a heavy, almost tribal rhythm that pounds slowly beneath the dark guitar melodies and droning riffs - killer stuff that sort of feels like something akin to late 80's Sisters Of Mercy transformed into a pummeling sludge metal anthem. And they slip from that lurching doom into a long spoken word passage on "Mysterious Spells" that's laid out over waves of murky industrial drift, eventually re-emerging as a devastating dirge on the other end, suddenly casting an evil pall over everything. And the soaring melodic sludge of "Coming Back For More" is super catchy, an almost gloompop hook drenched in gluey guitars and the rhythms section's elephantine tempo. It's a skillful balance between crushing doom-laden power and the band's softer, more introspective side, with a dark sensuality in the lyrics that makes this album stand out even further, blending visions of violence, debasement, and eroticism together into powerful imagery.