With a name like Dopelord and albums entitled Sign of the Devil and Songs for Satan, you won't be shocked to learn that this Polish quartet deals in Stoner Doom Metal. But just to dispel any lingering confusion with, say, a Christian Country band, they take the stage to the strains of Ted Lucas' "It Is So Nice to Get Stoned," a hymn to the sweet leaf that Black Sabbath, the genre's founding fathers, were singing about more than half a century ago. Satan, weed and an almost religious devotion to the almighty riff: the essential articles of faith are all accounted for.
We last caught Dopelord earlier this year at the Paris Tattoo Fest, where they delivered a ferocious set before Napalm Death proceeded to obliterate the place. Tonight, sandwiched between Witchorious and Monolord at La Maroquinerie, they have more room to indulge their particular brand of sonic depravity, a monstrous concoction of crushing grooves, aggressive Sludge and thick, lysergic atmospheres. Imagine being trapped in a psychedelic pond of molasses, with the occasional glimpse of daylight obscured by another enormous, fuzz-drenched guitar chord. But, y'know... satanic and shit.
For all the occult paraphernalia and horticultural enthusiasms, however, the real object of Dopelord's worship is the riff, and they understand its power as much in anticipation as in execution. A phrase is repeated, stretched, suspended in mid-air, left unresolved until it hangs above the audience like the sword of Damocles; then, with exquisite cruelty, the whole band comes crashing down like a hammer upon an anvil. The pleasure lies in that perpetual manipulation of tension and release, the almost physical sensation of waiting for something you know is going to flatten you.
There is really only one defence against such an assault: vigorous, repeated movement of the neck, propelling the head backwards and forwards, backwards and forwards, backwards and forwards. Watching the audience at La Maroquinerie perform this manoeuvre in near-perfect synchronisation, hundreds of heads bowing before the same colossal riff, is a thing of beauty. Whatever else Dopelord may worship, tonight they have a congregation.
SETLIST:
