Desire started back in 1992 as Incarnated but changed their name to Desire in 1994. They have made a name for themselves in the Portuguese scene with their slow poetic and atmospheric doom metal. With ‘Locus Horrendus – The Night Cries Of A Sullen Soul’ Desire takes us on a dark and gloomy journey through the dark woods of a frozen land. The album opens with a short intro which could easily have been the soundtrack of a horrormovie. ‘Frozen Heart… Lonely Soul…’ is next and drags us into the melancholic atmosphere for the remaining hour. With 69 minutes and 32 seconds this album is everything but short. The lyrics are poetic and feature Portuguese as well as English passages. The artwork is very dark and atmospheric but I must say that the inside of the booklet looks better than the front cover. On the back cover, above the song titles, it says ‘…romantic tragic concept…’ and that is exactly what this album is. There are themes that are present in several songs like the melody sung by the female vocals (‘…An Autumnal Night Passion’ Movement I and II). The songs are slow and long, but have no difficulty keeping your attention; if you like slow music that is.

One minor disadvantage are the drums that clearly have some timing problems. It is very hard for a band to record a slow album, so I do not question the drummer`s playing abilities, but it could have been edited in a modern studio. A second one is the intro to ‘The Weep Of A Mournful Dusk’. It starts off with a girl saying ‘Life is just a dream on the way to death’. Right after the grunts repeat this sentence but much slower. This seems to me to take the strength out of the message. The production is quite good; considering it is done by the band itself. Sometimes it gets a bit muddy in the low end due to the instruments drowning in huge reverbs. ‘…An Autumnal Night Passion’ opens with a crackled and equalized sound which works quite well. The album was mastered at Finnvox studios by Mika Jussila (Nightwish, Therion, Children Of Bodom). ‘Locus Horrendus’ is definitely not for speed maniacs; but people who listen to bands like My Dying Bride, the earlier Anathema and especially Evoken will have no trouble enjoying this dark and gloomy disc.