CHALICE Augmented CD (2003)

Gothic doom metal from Australia that actually holds up is rarer than it should be, and Chalice built something genuinely worth returning to. Augmented, released in 2003, is the kind of record that makes you realise how much atmosphere gets sacrificed when bands chase production budgets instead of feeling.

Chalice occupied that particular corner of the dark aesthetic where gothic metal and doom metal blur into each other, all weight and longing and orchestration that earns its place. If Tristania and Sins of Thy Beloved formed the backbone of your early 2000s listening, this fits right alongside them, with the added weight of coming from the Australian underground rather than the European scene everyone was watching at the time.

CD, full length album, 2003 release. Australian gothic/doom metal.

Fans of: Sins of Thy Beloved, Trail of Tears, Tristania.