Doom The Dark Ages is an interesting little beast. It’s still Doom at heart, in the vein of the last two games. But the vibe is just so very different, and not just because of the medieval setting. It’s the Army of Darkness of Doom games, if you follow. That goes double for the music, and while there’s, uh, obvious reasons for that. Fact remains, this is a game where you’re an absolute unit, ripping demons to shreds; but there’s way more Warhammer shit in its veins than before.
Doom 2016 and Eternal may have sparked a whole new fire under the djent-ier side of metal—to the point that there’s folks trying to make the name “Argent Metal” happen—but The Dark Ages is slotting into a deep tradition of metal portraying high-fantasy Hell, without swaying too far in either direction. So, if you were one of those folks who fell down a metal rabbit hole after the first two games, and need something to match the vibes a little better this time around, or if this is your first step into a larger, more brutal world, let’s walk you a little further down the path with an appropriate six more albums to go hunting down to keep the brutal times rolling long after you’ve Shield Sawed your last demon in half.
2 / 8
Whitechapel isn’t a band for cowards as it is. Hymns In Dissonance is literally a concept album about a prisoner of Hell breaching his confinement and starting a demonic cult to raze the planet. This is basically Dark Ages’ antagonist Prince Azhrak’s manifesto writ larger and harder than one could possibly imagine. Come for an album that literally starts off screaming “I BEAR THE NUMBER 666!,” stay for that moment in “Hate Cult Ritual” where an army of demons chants “We hunt, we kill, we feast, we conquer!”, which is basically gonna be your mantra the next time you get the Doom Slayer’s filthy hands on a shotgun.
3 / 8
Honestly, iD should’ve just gotten Orbit Culture to score the game. They hit Doom: The Dark Ages’ specific groove dead on: Absolute planet-destroying drums and riffs, coupled with persistent grim ambience, as well as frequent invocations of the natural world in places where there’s only gray and no green. Orbit Culture’s whole discography might as well be the national anthem of Argent D’Nur. Descent is a good starting point album, but the new song that just dropped for their next album, The Tales of War, is a damn fine listen as well, if for nothing else than Niklas Karlsson’s scream coming in like a jump scare.
4 / 8
Obvious? Sure. But correct? Yes. One of the big whiff moments of The Dark Ages is the fact that the moment the Slayer gets his laser-winged steed isn’t scored like the Angel of Death himself just took flight. Meanwhile, there’s a whole-ass Trivium album that in retrospect, every single song feels like you could track it into that cutscene and all the sky battles after, and then the player would IRL be able to take off into the sky like Superman right after. Oh well. At the very least, you do actually still have this awesome album, which is maybe the most back-to-basics album Trivium have made in a minute—but it’s also the one where Matt Heafy taking vocal cues from the guy from Disturbed doesn’t feel like a hideous mismatch.
5 / 8
Technically, this is an album and an EP, but also, despite also being deathcore, the “Pain Remains” trilogy at the end of the album is one of the most heartbreaking, melancholic things you’ll ever hear; and, while harsh and beautiful, you don’t wanna kill your demon-killing vibe. In their stead, you can slot in …And I Return To Nothingness, which is part and parcel with the rest of Pain Remains. It’s not just music heavier than dying stars about the fabric of the universe coming undone, with some of the most gravity-crushing breakdowns ever composed, but also Will Ramos comes out of nowhere to claim the title as one of metal’s most ridiculously versatile voices.
And, yes, of course, the end of “To The Hellfire” deserves its own separate shout out. Human beings should not be able to make those noises. They just shouldn’t.
6 / 8
Dimmu Borgir can go harder or more theatrical, depending on the album, but Death Cult Armageddon’s the Goldilocks album. It’s got enough of everything that makes the band great in perfect balance.
And what’s in that everything? Death metal about Lovecraftian demons raising an army to overtake humanity, with strange, alien vocal delivery, backed by a symphony orchestra. But also, it’s got arguably the band’s most accessible, lavish, and honestly, best track, “Progenies of the Great Apocalypse.” The orchestra takes the lead, and it just sounds the most like medieval gun-toting armies rushing to battle an eldritch force with argent energy (Editor’s note: this record’s a perfect example of why ICS Vortex has been so sorely missing from this band since his last contribution on In Sorte Diaboli). If you listen to nothing else on the album, every burgeoning metalhead needs that one.
7 / 8
And what, praytell, do you listen to if you’re in the mood to let the forces of Hell win? You get this, and turn the evil up to 12. Specifically, this is the best Behemoth album; it’s a masterpiece of absolute blasphemy. It’s not even their hardest work, but it’s by far their best written, and most cohesive. Other Behemoth albums spin yarns about a world where Hell is upon us and possible, The Satanist is the profane soundtrack for when the seventh seal gets broken.
8 / 8