Mammon’s Throne breathe life into doom metal by killing it slowly, surgically, and melodically with My Body to the Worms.
Release date: March 13, 2026 | Hammerheart Records | Facebook | Instagram | Bandcamp
Konami finally got off their fucking asses and announced a proper new Castlevania game so ever since then, I’ve been hype as hell on horror, vampires, blood, and other things that scare boomers. Enter Mammon’s Throne, a band I was not familiar with until recently, storming my brain castle with their delectable and dramatic doom metal that I’ve been craving since a couple of my favorite bands’ latest projects have come up a little short in that department.
My Body to the Worms is immediately reminiscent of classic doom like Candlemass. Theatrically clean vocals (mixed with monstrous rasps of course), dark melodies, and lyrics that are infectious to the mind. “Every Day More Sickened” isn’t just a song title, it’s a state of being once you loop this album enough times. I’ve done it all while listening to it too – commuting to work, cleaning my house, just sitting here typing or playing Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance (told y’all I was hype), it’s been a wondrously complementary experience.
The single “Elixir” was arresting when I first heard it. So hopelessly catchy and fun, the guitars are deliberate and punchy, the rhythmic timbre of the vocals and how they’re paced out syllabically is great. This is easily one of my favorite songs of the year so far and all I wanna do when I hear or think about it is hunch my back and walk around my house like a lurching scourge on humanity yelling out the lyrics – ‘Elixir, drink your fill, none dare defy thine ancient will. Born anew, life profane, lost to time your mother’s naaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaame!‘
“Every Day More Sickened” is more performative in the traditional sense. The vocals smack of Messiah Marcolin – different pitch, but same devotion to the craft – for this song that laments an ‘age of hate‘ which is relatable to today where ragebait, misplaced anger, and righteous disgust run amok with each other. I absolutely love the first verse which tells of someone trying to fake being okay when the world around them is abhorrent to a degree that’s nearly unfathomable:
‘Every day more sickened
I can no longer hide it
I fake so many smiles
While inside disgust builds up in me
For a while
I tried to be someone I cannot be
Blind to all
All the things I wish I could unsee‘
Just like the doom of yore, atmosphere is a key ingredient to Mammon’s Throne‘s rule. There’s two instrumentals on this seven-track album and while that sounds like a lot, it pays off. “Clandestine Unholy Rites” takes its name from the first verse of “Elixir”, but also intros it with foreboding soundscapes pockmarked with portals to hell, demonic voices, an ominous melody, wind barreling through the hollow halls of a cursed manor, and spooked bats taking flight with their adorable little squeaks. Truly the music is alive in the most perturbed manner. “At The Threshold Of Eternity” is more ethereal in nature with warm synthesizers, emotive piano, and a killer yet tasteful guitar solo. This is a pinnacle moment when My Body to the Worms gets more morose in tone on the back half so it’s very fitting.
The album is bookended with awesome tracks as well. “Senseless Death” is the best of all doomy worlds and an intro to the hopeless tone much of the album holds. It even has chilling blasts of black metal at the end as the vocals wretch out ‘In the absence of light, the dark takes over‘. Just an A1 fucking song. Album ender “Departed” is a sweet if despondent climax to My Body to the Worms. Matched with pensive guitars, the beginning has a folky inflection with clean vocals that bring to mind the “Red Right Hand”-era of Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, just way sadder. This is the end of life, not only for the album, but the person the song takes the perspective of. I believe it’s the same man from earlier in the album who crooned of his and others’ doom in “Senseless Death” and rebelled against the nature of his fellow man in “Every Day More Sickened”. A fitting end he meets then, giving his own downtrodden eulogy before he’s even gone. To match the mood, the music is the slowest and most emotional yet, but still has a fire in it toward the end with instrumentation picking up for a break in the track before the harsh vocals get the final word: ‘My body to the worms/The wind whistles through my bones/My grave an unmarked stone/And finally I’m alone‘.
With that, the second best album I’ve heard this year ends, or to be literal, loops around for another go. Mammon’s Throne really captured some dark doom magic on this album, the kind you just wanna shout from a broken church steeple as you sprout wings and dive down to feed on the people of Wallachia. My Body to the Worms isn’t particularly inventive, but it’s masterful with its craft, totally committed to the bit in a way that isn’t cringy, but entertaining as hell. The musicianship and writing don’t take a backseat to the fun either, everyone is on point in an admirable and impressive fashion. There’s not a single element to this album that lacks and therefore I must give it my highest recommendation for doom metal fans that appreciate the more melodic sensibilities the genre can have and don’t mind a little (okay, a lot) of pomp to go with it. Phenomenal project.
