It’s like Sepultura meets Pink Floyd meets Sleep meets Draconian meets Type O Negative meets With the Dead. On “Sanctuary,” Alkymist are not satisfied to just immerse you in the heaviness and the Doom, they seek to defy and challenge your expectations. Where a simple power chord would have been serviceable, they employ diminished chords with jagged notes from John Lennon’s old bag of tricks. The single sustained note guitar solos fondly recall David Gilmour with soul and eeriness, which really really really works in this context.

The scope stretches from horizon-to-horizon, flooding your skull and blowing your little mind with dark visuals and sounds. Interestingly, “Oethon” at track 1 is possibly the least accessible. Peter Bjorneg’s guttural growled vocals are similar to old-school Max Cavalera, but neither as melodic or as loud. He also employs a villainous spoken-sung voice, which. . . also takes a minute to adjust.
“Sanctuary” from Alkymist is a glorious collision of Doom, Thrash, Death, and Prog, swirling and blending the dark elements to form something new and wonderful. The album has two kinds of songs: the epics and the Floydian instrumental interludes. Bask in them all. You simply cannot go wrong. “Desolated Sky” is the best of the best, though.