Mother Armageddon, Healing Apocalypse is the debut album from Canadian four-piece Georgian Skull (or The Georgian Skull...the cover has the "The," the promo materials do not). There's a bit in the promo material about the band rising out of the end of Mister Bones, which contained the same vocalist/lead guitarist and rhythm guitarist. Not being at all familiar with Mister Bones, I can't really say anything about the connection other than that and that they're still rooted in stoner and doom metal.

The album opens well enough with the intro to "Final Days of Doom." The song fades in with a bit of a noisy groove and southern swagger in the vocals. A plodding section in the middle of the song almost loses me, although a couple double-time parts and a delay-drenched solo pick things up. Although the start of the song was promising, the rest of it is perhaps not; half of the song makes me want to skip to the next track.

Later tracks pick it up; follow up "Demon Crippler" does more trading of groove and pounding double-time sections and has much more interesting riffing. "Hearts Burning" has an almost terrifying start compared to the preceding tracks before settling into the groove and even hitting a catchy sing-along section toward the end.

The first couple tracks really set the pace and style for the most of the album, with a mix of heavy grooves and upbeat sections. Halfway through, "Intermission" offers a huge change: the vocal delivery is the same, but the drums are way back in the mix and the crushing guitars are largely replaced with out-there delay effects.

Some of the tracks in the second half of the CD are actually stronger than those in the first, I think. The intermission is followed by "Hunting the Ghost," possibly the strongest track with a hugely catchy chorus. "Possessed Obsessed," which appears to be a Mister Bones track, has a great intro riff. "Where The Demons Dwell" is a slow-burn ballad that works better than the slow heavy middle to "Final Days Of Doom."

Vocalist Al "The Yeti" Bones is worth a mention just for hitting a decent range of vocal styles. At times, most noticeably on "Hunting The Ghost," he hits a mostly clean voice that evokes James Hetfield or (ex-)Brand New Sin's Joe Altier, while at the other end of the spectrum passages on "The Funeral" even made me think of Lamb Of God's Randy Blythe. Typically though the vocals are somewhere in between, a gritty, swaggering growl.

The problem with this CD is that while it has its high points, it has a lot of low points as well that just feel generic. The album as a whole is a slow burn, you could say, being back loaded instead of front loaded, but that makes it easy to get lost or disinterested and not even make it to the stronger bits. It's not bad, but in the iTunes age you might want to pick and choose a few songs instead of delving into the whole thing.