Album Review: Dopelord, Songs for Satan
[Full disclosure: this release originally appeared as part of Postwax Vol. II, for which I wrote the liner notes and was compensated. I’m reviewing anyway. If you want to call it a conflict of interest, feel free to sue me in the Open Court of Stoner Rock™ sometime. Or maybe just relax.]
The fifth full-length from Warsaw’s Dopelord, Songs for Satan is a masterpiece of devil-worshiping stoner doom metal. The ideal version of itself. Released through Blues Funeral Recordings, the seven-track (six plus an intro) offering sees the band — guitarist/vocalist Paweł Mioduchowski, bassist/vocalist Piotr Zin, guitarist Grzegorz Pawłowski and drummer Piotr Ochociński — in complete control of their approach on every level, from craft through the intricacies of tone and performance to the headphone-worthy atmospheres that come through material that is pointedly, intentionally, efficiently constructed. Each song is a monument to its own volume, and even the eerie quiet stretches are a call to listeners to join the band in their ceremonial cause.
It strikes an impeccable balance between melody and rhythm, with huge grooves through side A’s “Night of the Witch” — a landmark hook and one of 2023’s strongest singles; it emerges from the nighttime forest noise of “Intro,” comes back around (plus Mellotron!) for the two-minute epilogue/sequel “Return of the Night of the Witch” to wrap side B, becoming something of a root sonic theme for the record’s course — “The Chosen One” and “One Billion Skulls” through the corresponding maddeningly catchy love song “Evil Spell” mirroring “Night of the Witch” while being something else and the de facto capper “Worms” pushing into more extreme sludge ahead of the aforementioned outro, all with an overarching flow and an abiding lack of pretense that says if you came here for riffs and weed and Satan, Dopelord have your number.
There are myriad arguments for and against Satanism in rock and metal. It’s certainly been done before, if that matters (I’d argue less in-genre then generally). It’s an inherent validation of christianity, since even in mockery it acknowledges the dogma as a cultural force. It can be a crutch lyrically for some acts, but that’s not what’s happening across Songs for Satan, which was written lyrically as a political response to catholic cultural oppression in Poland and the hard move toward conservatism the Polish church has made since the ‘end’ of the Cold War. Amid basslines fat enough to keep you warm in a Warsaw winter and a guttural shout that acts as preface for the screams of “Worms” to come, “One Billion Skulls” repeats the lines, “Standing on the edge of time/I’m spitting in the face of god,” as its arrival point, and even the first verse of “Night of the Witch” is an exultation to those alienated by the militant faithful:
Each time they laugh into your face
With each stone they throw
You lose belief in who you are
And cave inside
Hear us calling from the dark
Through the cold of the night
Now your time has finally come
To find your way…
A crow caws, the plod starts with fuzz of deceptive warmth and consuming largesse, and Dopelord guide the listener through Songs for Satan with cleverness, righteousness, and skill. To wit, the layering in the chorus of “Night of the Witch.” While consistent with the rest of the song-songs on Songs for Satan (not “Intro” or “Return of the Night of the Witch,” that is) in being circa seven minutes long, “Night of the Witch” stands out for how it’s built as well as its message and aural/stylistic appeal. Most of the album was recorded with Haldor Grunberg at Satanic Audio, who also mixed and mastered, while rhythm tracks, synth and vocals were done in Warsaw in Santa Studio and Silent Scream Studio.
Guitar solos were done separately, by Barszczi Kanada at Giorgio Mordo Studio, with the exception of “Worms,” which boasts guest shred by Midnight guitarist Vanik. This info is on Bandcamp and elsewhere, and is included here for future reference, but it demonstrates as well the process by which Songs for Satan was shaped and for a process that included four different studios at various points, there is not a part on the record, not a song, a verse, or the airy solo held out under the last rolling chorus of “Evil Spell” — that chorus, “What do I have to become for you to love me?/A wizard?/What will you become if you love me back?/A witch?,” imprinting itself upon the brain, perhaps permanently — that is wasted.
Everything on Songs for Satan aligns to the mission at hand. Dopelord are focused, detail-oriented as shown in the low-mixed growl adding weight to the chorus in “Night of the Witch” and throughout “The Chosen One” or the sort of tectonic shimmy as the title-line is delivered in “One Billion Skulls,” they present the most realized vision to-date of themselves. They’ve been at the forefront of Poland’s underground for a while — a rich and varied scene with the likes of Spaceslug, Belzebong, Tortuga, Sunnata, Weedpecker and scores of others — and reaffirm that position handily throughout as they crash and bash across the record’s 38 component minutes with cold grace, taking familiar elements of genre and putting them to specific, admittedly somewhat reactionary, purpose.
Despite being completely over the top in terms of volume and the basic hugeness of its sound, Songs for Satan doesn’t feel like it’s doing too much or too little; the burst-to-riff two minutes into “One Billion Skulls” and the derived-from-’60s-psych manner in which the keys (maybe Mellotron) play out the melody of “Night of the Witch” to conclude with “Return of the Night of the Witch” before they drop back to forest-night noise at the very finish underscores the level of consideration at hand. This is not lazy, nothing-to-say, haphazard, throw-riffs-together songwriting.
Rather, Songs for Satan — which in the PostWax edition included the extra track “Satan’s Call” — revels in its sense of completion. It is professional. Crisp. Sharp. Listenable. Accessible, at least if you’re already a capital-‘h’ Heavy convert. And it sounds massive enough to pull a gravity field. Front to back — and I mean that — Songs for Satan delivers on the promise of Dopelord‘s early output and draws strength from the unified perspective of the lyrics, while staying committed to the stoner-doom at their core, giving intricacies their due alongside the flattening effect of their tonality. Anger as successful motivator? Probably in part, but in these songs of defiance and Satanic praise, Dopelord build as many altars as they tear down. Easily among 2023’s most accomplished albums, and a defining moment for the band.
There will be those who write it off immediately thinking it’s cliché or who will otherwise miss the point. I would encourage you heartily to not be one of them.
Dopelord, Songs for Satan (2023)
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Tags: Blues Funeral Recordings, Dopelord, Dopelord Songs for Satan, Poland, Songs for Satan, Warsaw
This was one of my most anticipated albums of the year and it lived up to expectations. Agree about the earworm chorus of Evil Spell.