Album Review: Death Penalty - "Death Penalty"

Gaz Jennings is a name well known in the perpetual underground of heavy metal. As the songwriter and guitarist for the now-defunct Cathedral, Jennings helped pen and perform some of the great classics of doom metal, teaming up with Lee Dorian to energize the genre after a particularly fallow period.

Jennings returns now after a couple years off to try and re-invigorate the genre again, this time teaming up with Dorian’s record label (Rise Above) and Serpentcult alumni Michelle Nocon and Fredrik Cosemans to form Death Penalty, itself a likely reference to the Witchfinder General record of the same name. Death Penalty’s eponymous debut aims high, attempting to stoke the fires of doom by focusing where so many new doom bands have overlooked; the church of the riff.

“Death Penalty” goes beyond the bounds of Cathedral, allowing the listener only a beat to ease into the atmospheric, dulcet opening of “Grotesque Horizon” before dropping the aural hammer and punching chords through the speakers with alarming presence for “Howling at the Throne of Decadence.” The sound is confident without giving way to unnecessary loudness or bravado – there is a continual balance of strength, pace and accessibility that keeps the record in control of attention, which is a testament to Jennings’ talent for writing riffs that have both virility and easy hooks.

Nocon is that most rare of female vocalists, the singer whose voice is based in the experience of real life. Her singing is sweet but not naïve, layered with the grit of a woman who has made her own career and had to struggle to get there. Anything but a pristine tone, Nocon sings from the heart, her voice a tapestry contextual emotion and honest expression. In a genre overcrowded with either sanguine sweetness or ugly anger, she bridges the gap and invokes imagery of playing to a smoky, crowded lounge, particularly as the listener gets deep into songs like “Golden Tides.”

There’s so much more going on here than just the resurrection of some Cathedral memories and old-school doom being orchestrated and pumped through a modern recording system. Death Penalty is deeply engaged in the art of metal song writing as a function of headbanging catchiness. The trailing tail of album closer “Written by the Insane,” is a clever ending to the record, straddling the line between hooky repetition and minimal creative adjustment. It’s a wandering but enjoyable ending, possessing both power and familiarity and Jennings and company wind a long solo around a base rhythm riff.

As if to seal the point of their combined versatility and sense of the moment, Death Penalty throws in a couple true doom pieces, sludgy, dire dirges of evocative vocals and nervous energy. “The One That Dwells” is a palpable piece of anxious exploration, like wandering through a dark, unknown series of caves with the dimmest of flashlights. Yet, Death Penalty keeps the audience wanting more by limiting this piece to two and a half minutes, offering just a taste and never allowing the concept to tire.

Death Penalty’s debut album is a powerful statement of arrival, or rearrival in the case of some of the longer-tenured musicians. Nevertheless, even those names and faces seek to step out from the shadow of their careers in Cathedral and Serpentcult, reenergized and focused through this new lens. “Death Penalty” is a great second first impression and the sky seems to be the limit for the band going forward.