### Sorcerer: Sorcerer

#### 30/01/12 || gk

Sweden’s Sorcerer split up back in 1993 with just a couple of demos to their name and it was left to John Perez and his Brainticket Records to resurrect the band somewhat with the self titled compilation of the 2 demos in 1995. That release though has been long out of print and this year, Brainticket finally re-released what is an important piece of doom metal history. The band sounds remarkably current in spite of most of these songs being written and recorded almost 20 years ago. In fact, Sorcerer could easily fit into the current trend of bands mixing traditional metal and doom and if you can ignore the slightly dated drum sound then this album could have been all new material released this year. The songs are epic and held together with some classy guitar work and a vocalist who sounds almost uncannily similar to Mats Leven. There’s a cover of Rainbow’s “Stargazer” and the album includes the song “Far Beyond” from the first demo which was left out of the original 1995 release. So this release also represents the complete work of the band. With news of the band reforming in 2010 and possible new material, the timing of this re-issue is perfect. “Sorcerer” is essential for fans of doom metal.

8.5/10: And very impressive stuff.