UMUR "In the Devil's Days" is the 2nd full-length studio album by New Zealand doom metal act The House of Capricorn. The album was released through Swamps of the one Tree Hill in October 2011.

The band site artists like the badass doom/goth rock/metal act Babylon Whores, the ultra doomy and melancholic Type O Negative and the stoner/doom metal fathers of Black Sabbath as their main influences and that´s more than audible in the music on "In the Devil's Days". Heavy doomy riffing coupled with more groove based doom/goth rocking metal and a melancholic atmosphere. The two opening tracks "All Hail the Netherworld" and "Les Innocents" speak loud of the music style and diversity on the album. The former being a hard rocking doom metal track with a catchy chorus while the latter is an ultra doomy and very Type O Negative influenced song. The band seamlessly go from one music style to the other and make it work well within the context of the album. You´re never in doubt that it´s the same band playing.

The album is very long with it´s 72:55 minutes long playing time, and it´s an album that takes time to fully appreciate. The long playing time is necessary though as The House of Capricorn generally write rather long tracks. The shortest (excluding "Canto IV" which works like a shorter interlude) tracks are around 5 minutes long while the longest track on the album ("Horns") is a 14:04 minutes long beast of a track.

The band are well playing and the organic sound production brings out the best in the music. Paired with strong songwriting those elements make "In the Devil's Days" quite a great listen and I´d say a 3.5 - 4 star (75%) rating is deserved.

Time Signature All hail to the netherworld...

Genre: doom metal/rock

Let The House of Capricorn take you by the hand and lead you on a dark journey straight to hell on "In the Devil's Days", which is their sophomore album. The main challenge of any band is to make a second album which lives up to the expectations generated by the debut album. The House of Capricorn definitely have no problems in that respect with "In the Devil's Days", which is a brilliant, and in many ways, innovative doom metal album.

The House of Capricorn draw on a number of different influences and seamlessly combine them into their own style of doom-ladden and expressive music which has both a metal aspect and a rock aspect, which are perfectly balanced. Thus, there is something on this album for both fans of classic doom metal, gothic metal, sludge metal, traditional metal, and dark hard rock, and there are even some elements on the album that fans of depressive black metal might enjoy.

The tracks on the album vary in terms of tempo and pace, ranging from extremely heavy and doom-ladden tracks like 'Les Innocents', 'Veils' and 'Horns' over midtempo tracks to slightly uptempo tracks, but the sense of darkness and heaviness remains consistent throughout the album, which is both rich in texture, melody and expressiveness. I would argue that "In the Devil's Days" contains the same qualities that made albums like "Shades of God", "Draconian Times", "Forest of Equilibrium", "The Ethereal Mirror", "Storm Warning", "Day of Reckoning", "Bloody Kisses", and "Beyond the Crimson Horizon" the doom metal classics they are, and the dark future of The House of Capricorn definitely looks promising.

It's doomy. It's gloomy. It's The House of Capricorn's "In the Devil's Days" and it rocks. Fans of heavy music should definitely check out this massive album.