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Released on January 29, 2016 via Napalm Records
Conan writes heavy, lumbering, riff-driven doom music. Soaked in feedback and goaded with forlorn war-cries – the group has been at it for a while. They put out their début full-length in 2012, Blood Eagle in 2014 and right on time, two years later they’re here with their third – Revengeance. While the music is still very much “caveman”, “battle” and “doom”, it is different – good different, of course.
Liverpool-based, two EPs and a split old, Conan hit it big in 2012. Monnos brought a new brand of heavy to the doom palette and —pardon the expletives— everyone lost their shit. The music was bold, determined in vision and boasted a kind of maturity most bands lacked even a couple of releases into their career. It had conviction. It was probably because it came from an honest place. Jon was going through sort of a low ebb and Conan was the way he overcame it. Jon and friends had spawned a beast – a beast that roared, plodded and decimated pretty much everything that came its way – total conquest.
A live album and a split later, Blood Eagle, the band’s Napalm Records début, saw Conan further nurture their craft. The tones became heavier, the production got denser, vocal trade-offs became a thing and the overall songwriting exhibited a subtler flow and ease. Conan was trying newer things, making great creative progress and the album stood testament to the band’s unhurried, forward-thinking attitude. I absolutely loved that album. To me it was a more full-filling listen than Monnos. All I thought at the time was where was Conan to go next?
With a new guy behind the kit and the band’s long-time producer taking up bass (and growl) duties, Revengeance is all heaviness. The core aesthetic is very much intact but Fielding and Lewis’ addition to the band has brought about a certain rejuvenation that is hard to miss. It is this freshness in structure and the dynamic songwriting that makes this album a compelling, front-to-back listen. While the last two albums came pretty close, Revengeance captures the band’s live sound like no other. The production is expansive and the tones have a lot more grit, thunder and rumble to them. For a band that seemed to have nailed it right from the get-go, these subtleties bring in a lot of interest and excitement.
Conan has let the beast be its own self, it’s let the music decide its growth – growth that is natural and not forced. I think a lot of it owes to how self-aware the band has been at any point in its career. It is important for a band to know itself, to know what they’re capable of and then do it right. For instance, the title song, ‘Revengeance’, is indisputably the fastest, thrashiest song the band has written to date and to be honest, I’m more impressed than surprised by it. Rich Lewis (Intensive Square) is a fantastic drummer and to see him contribute so heavily to the band’s songwriting is a sign of a good, healthy band – a band that employs the best it’s got and gives it all to making the kind of music it does. It is just ironic how unabashedly progressive (in attitude) Conan is for a band that writes the most rudimentary, atavistic heavy music.
All said and done, the album belts and Conan is in an interesting place right now, creatively. Where do they go from here? I don’t want to know. Hail Conan!
