Professor Emeritus - A Land Long Gone

Angry Metal Guy 80

There are some pretty disastrous band names out there, and Professor Emeritus is up near the tippy-top. Why anyone would name themselves after a retired college instructor is beyond me, but their 2017 Take Me to the Gallows debut was an entertaining dose of epic/trve/doom metal with enough muscle and magic to win me over despite some rough spots and vocal missteps. Nearly eight years later, we get the follow-up, A Land Long Gone, and the lineup has undergone a massive overhaul, with only guitarist Lee Smith (ex-Satan’s Hallow) remaining. In comes vocalist Esteban Julian Pena of Acerus, along with several former members of Black Sites, and the result is an entirely different beast. The epic/trve/doom template is still in place, but the sometimes amateurish, goofy moments of the debut are replaced with serious, somber, and memorable songcraft and musicianship. Throughout A Land Long Gone, you’ll hear influences ranging from Candlemass, Crypt Sermon, Manilla Road, Argus, and Doomsword, and that’s good company to be in. It’s also the most potent of Steel chum, and since it brought me to the yard, I will stay until I slake my mighty thirst with the blood of my enemies (I’ll settle for Pabst in a pinch). On with the retirement party!

You don’t need a fancy college degree to know you want to open your album with a slobberknocker of a tune, and Professor Emeritus does this with “A Corpse’s Dream.” Coming out of the gate with burly, beefy riffs that alternate between doomy and trve, you feel the difference from the debut right away. This is musclebound trve doom that wants to smack you in the face with a warhammer. It hits hard while remaining surprisingly polished and, dare I say it, tasteful. It reminds me of a heavier Memory Garden mated with the chest-pounding bravado of Argus, and that’s a winning chili recipe! Pena kills it with a great vocal performance, and you’ll be impressed. “Zosimos” adopts Iron Maiden-isms to lay the groundwork for an epic tale, then the big trve riffs hit the beach and the raid is on! The melancholy vocal harmonies are memorable and well-executed, and the sadboi guitar work is regal but downtrodden. It works like an iron charm. “Passage” sounds like something off the early Omen albums mixed with Helstar, so that means it rocks to fucking Hell and back as meaty riffs gallop and Pena adopts darker, meaner tones. Armies are raised with shit like this.

A Land Long Gone by Professor Emeritus

Another high point arrives with “Defeater,” which is all Manowar loincloth sweat and Doomsword blade fetishizing. It’s such a macho, triumphant stanza that there’s no way to hear it and not seize a sizeable portion of your neighbor’s lawn as war booty.¹ When Pena roars, “Do NOT be defeated again!” I guarantee you’ll gain between 3-5 inches on your pec-scrotal tie-in. Elsewhere, a strong Manilla Road vibe emanates from the folksy, atmospheric badassery of “Hubris,” where the careful listener may also divine traces of Darkest Era. The guitar work here is especially regal and captivating, and the piece at 4:36, where Pena comes in after a stupendous guitar solo will give you chills. In a show of diversity of approach, the album wraps with the 9-minute “Kalopsia Caves,” which reads like an effort to marry Warning and early Candlemass. It has the oversized bombast of the latter and the sullen, stripped-back minimalism of the former and it fucking works. It’s a beautiful doom voyage with delightful side quests into folk, Something Wicked This Way Comes era Iced Earth, and Bruce Dickinson’s Chemical Wedding opus. That should NOT work, but it totally does!

This is one of those albums where you want to lay the plaudits at every member’s feet. Pena does a great job vocally, solving all the issues from the debut and elevating the material to lofty heights. I admire the way he shifts vocal styles often, slipping from majestic crooning into harsher intonations effortlessly. He brings a ton of charisma and gravitas to the songs and makes you pay attention. Lee Smith and new axe Tyler Antram shine brightly as they shower the listener in muscular trve metal riffs, crushing doom leads, and sadboi trilling as needed. The drum work by Chris Avgerin is also top shelf, and damn do they sound good in the mix! The whole band is excellent, and the writing is vastly superior to what the debut offered.

I was somewhat surprised to see a new Professor Emeritus promo pop up at all, and I certainly didn’t expect an album THIS good. This thing is now riding high on my Best Of 2025 list, and I can’t stop spinning it. It’s a great companion piece to the recent Beholder album, but it’s much better. Judge them not on the awful name. Hear A Land Long Gone and let the metal do the talking. Hail the Professor!

Rating: 4.0/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: No Remorse
Websites: professoremeritus.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/professoremerituslives
Releases Worldwide: June 13th, 2025

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