AGANOOR - Doomerism

Opened by the granite-hard riff of "Bury My Soul", the debut album from Roman band Aganoor is a welcome surprise on the Italian hard'n'heavy scene. Released via BloodRock Records and My Kingdom Music, "Doomerism" is a fearless sonic journey of almost forty minutes, caught between doom darkness and hypnotic stoner desertscapes. Starting with the artwork by Mirkow Gastow – who has already worked with bands like Pentagram – Aganoor's debut album is loaded with symbolism, wrapped in a timeless seventies-flavoured aesthetic that nonetheless translates into a decidedly more modern sound.

With the seasoned production of Danilo Silvestri (Doomraiser and Venus In Vegas), "Doomerism" opens with the solidity of certain stoner-sludge textures, in the manner of bands like Goatsnake, making for one of the most immediate stylistic comparisons. The single "Icarus" is in fact emblematic in capturing the dark core of the band's sound, blending the thunderous, pounding grooves typical of hard rock with an eighties flavour and the near-mysticism of stoner or grunge from the 90s. On the hypnotic "Nadir", a relentless, desert-worthy guitar forcefully emerges, accompanied by a smooth, filtered voice. The listener is thus drawn slowly and gradually into the album's grooves, while the band's level of experimentation rises with each successive track.

"Emerald Lake" adds romantic and gothic touches to the sonic pattern, following in the footsteps of sacred monsters like Type O' Negative. "Morbid Skin" celebrates a doom rhythm with an intriguing psych–blues coda, while the ending of "Mind Shadowing" stretches out into over six minutes of mesmerizing sludge.

Thanks in no small part to Anth Maelstrom's excellent guitar work, "Doomerism" is a more than promising debut for Aganoor, who prove capable of offering several variations on the main theme of homegrown Italian doom.

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11/04/2026