RESUMPTION is a new death doom metal project from the mind of Wilhelm Lindh — a Swedish musician who has been living in Portugal for many years and is best known as the guitarist and founder of THE GARDNERZ, a progressive death/doom act that released five recordings between 2011 and 2017. Lindh also played bass in the classic Swedish gothic doom outfit TRISTITIA on their later albums, and passed through the ranks of PANDEMONIUM and ALLAMEDAH. After years of detour through blues bands, a PRIMORDIAL show in Lisbon lit the fuse and pulled him back into the cesspool of extreme metal. The project name says it all — a resumption, a return to unfinished business.
"The Respite" is a nine-track debut built around themes of mental health and anti-religious sentiment. Lindh has been open about the album functioning as a form of therapy — a way to process anxiety, cut ties with toxic influences, and channel raw emotion into something heavy. The album is dedicated to his late father, who hated metal but never stopped supporting his son's musical path. There's an ironic wit to naming an album of crushing death doom "The Respite" — a word meaning temporary relief — and Lindh is fully aware of that contradiction.
Musically, "The Respite" leans more toward the death metal side of the death/doom equation. The backbone of the album is built on chugging, straightforward guitar riffs that don't try to overwhelm the listener with speed or technical showmanship. This is clearly intentional — Lindh has spoken about wanting to keep things raw and dirty, and the album delivers on that promise. The chugging death metal passages are regularly broken up by slower, doomier sections with more melodic riffing, and the balance between the two sides works well. Occasional solos appear throughout, tasteful and restrained rather than flashy.
"Worship" is a standout, combining evil slower death riffs with faster thrash-influenced guitar work and a short but effective solo — it's one of the tracks where the range of the album's palette comes together most convincingly. The title track "The Respite" provides a well-placed contrast — a quiet, melancholic instrumental that serves as a genuine breather amid the heaviness surrounding it. In an album of otherwise relentless material, this interlude earns its name.
The vocals sit in a solid, guttural death metal register and do their job within the context of the songs. They won't be the first thing that grabs your attention on this record — the guitar work and the riffing carry the heavier load in that regard — but they fit the overall rawness of the project and don't feel out of place. On the whole, "The Respite" is a consistent, honest piece of death doom metal. It doesn't reinvent the genre, and it doesn't try to. The mix of chugging death metal riffs, doomy atmospheric passages, and measured soloing adds up to an album that knows exactly what it wants to be. For a debut from a solo project, the level of consistency across nine tracks is commendable. Fans of BOLT THROWER's groove, BROKEN HOPE's heaviness, and the slow suffocation of FUNERAL will find familiar ground here — filtered through the personal lens of a musician who clearly needed to make this record.
"The Respite" will be released digitally on April 17, 2026. In the meantime, check out the first two singles: Don't Come and Some Things Are Too Broken.