Album Review: Anguish – Magna Est Vis Suignah (High Roller Records)

Almost ten years into their career, Swedish Doomsters Anguish will release their third full-length album ’Magna Est Vis Siugnah’ on January 26th 2018 via High Roller Records.

With the crunch of groove-covered doomy riffs, pulsating bass lines, savage drums & blackened metal vocals, Anguish gets things started with Blessed be the Beast. A track that is deliciously evil & brutally heavy.

The title track follows with a bit more technical guitar prowess at the start before dropping into a slower doom-infused rhythm. However dark the first track might have felt, it was nothing compared to the blackness that this brings. The vocals are sermon-like & the melody hallucinogenic.

Every riff, every slam of the drums, every pluck of the bass, every monk-like chant…every moment within Magna est vis Siugnah just sounds huge. An album that is the soundtrack to the end of the world.

Nowhere is that better exemplified then on the crushing Of the Once Ravenous & the mentally troubling Requiescat in Pace.

It has to be said though, that as good as this album is there isn’t much in the way of innovation here. It would be difficult to pick Anguish out of the doom metal crowd. You can’t help but feel a tinge of disappointment when the penultimate track sounds so similar to what came before. While it does pick up near the end it’s brief & too late to bring interest back around.

Magna est vis Siugnah does finish strongly though. The longest track on the album, it does suffer a few of the issues heard so far but has enough variety within to keep things moving along nicely.

A good effort.

Anguish – Magna est vis Siugnah Full Track Listing:

1. Blessed be the Beast
2. Magna est vis Siugnah
3. Of the Once Ravenous
4. Requiescat in Pace
5. Elysian Fields of Fire
6. Our Daughters Banner

Pick the album up over on Bandcamp as well as earlier releases, via High Roller Records store & via Apple Music below. Find out more about Anguish on Facebook.