Doom Metal

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Ichabod – 2012 (2009)

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    With the waves of bands playing Stoner Rock/Metal with Psychedelic influences we have a hard time finding something worth listening to. Ichabod solves this problem for us with 2012, their 3rd full-length album in 11 years of existence. The band does a good job in reminding us what this genre is all about with their grooviness and heaviness.

    Hailing from Massachusetts, the band has the traditional American sound of this genre. They also do a great job in capturing the moodiness of stoner rock and making it their own. However, in whenever the band uses clean vocals they sound terrible; the singer really needs to get some lessons before attempting them again. The harsh vocals are good enough for a release of this kind.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Cathedral – The Guessing Game (2010)

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    Five years have passed since the band’s last effort “The Garden of Unearthly Delights” and Cathedral has returned with another brilliant release with “The Guessing Game”. Having been around for 20 years and evolving unlike any other band of their time, Cathedral breaks the mold of Stoner/Doom Metal music by adding more progressive and psychedelic elements to their already diverse sound.

    Lee Dorian and folks have never made a single album that had disappointed us and “The Guessing Game” is no exception to this rule. Released as a in a double CD, we have over 80 minutes of brilliant music that will surely please Cathedral fans. While the band is less ‘Doomy’ than before, they do a great job of combining Doom Metal riffs with a wide variety of instruments and sounds.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    An Autumn For Crippled Children – Lost (2010)

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    With an extremely interesting (and messed up) name, I was very intrigued by this band. After reading the release’s press information I got even more excited, since they claimed that the band mixes Atmospheric Doom Metal with Black Metal and Post-Rock, a combination that on paper sounds heavenly but in practice can be a total failure.

    So being both excited and skeptical about An Autumn For Crippled Children (AAFCC for short), I decided to dive in and take a swing at this release. Let me tell you, this album is all that it was hyped to be and even more, the music is both dense and haunting creating a tick atmosphere that will immerse you into AAFCC’s demented world since the first minute of “Lost”.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Svartsot - Mulmets Viser (2010)

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    Coming from Denmark, we get Napalm Records second Folk/Viking Metal offering of the month. “Mulmets Viser” is Svartsot’s second full-length album and their best to date. Having recorded two brilliant demos and one full-length album (“Ravnenes Saga”) the band shows no signs of losing their edge in every release.

    After 90% of the band quit in 2008, Cris J.S. Frederiksen wasted no time in putting together a group of musicians that wanted to continue with Svartsot. This bold move paid off since there is nothing lost in the quality of this band, and we would even dare to say that they sound better than ever.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Brown Jenkins – Death Obsession (2009)

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    Following their acclaimed by some (and trashed by others) album “Angel Eyes”, Brown Jenkins releases their last opus “Death Obsession”. Like it or not, Brown Jenkins is one of those bands that you either praise or despise, I side with the later.

    If you are not aware of what kind of music Brown Jenkins plays, they try to mix Doom and Black Metal with heavy Drone influence and the result is, in my opinion, a half assed approach to either of the genres.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    While Heaven Wept – Vast Oceans Lachrymose (2009)

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    While Heaven Wept is one of my favorite American bands since their Epic/Power Doom Metal is very different than other bands out there, and “Vast Oceans Lachrymose” is a worthy follow up to “Of Empires Forlorn”.

    However “Vast Oceans Lachrymose” sounds much more like the continuation of “Of Empires Forlorn” since they both have plenty of similarities in their sound. If you like the band’s previous album then you will love this new one, but if you did not then this is the problem here, the band shows almost no musical evolution between them.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Griftegård – Solemn.Sacred.Severe (2009)

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    When I first saw the name of the band I assumed they played Black Metal or something related to BM, but to my surprise this relatively new Swedish band plays Doom Metal in the vein of Candlemass and While Heaven Wept.

    “Solemn.Sacred.Sever” is the debut full length album from this band, and to be their debut release is pretty solid, but it does not have a single gram of originality in it. And while their particular style is not 100% to my liking, they still manage to pull of an album that I would not mind listening from start to finish.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Syrach – A Dark Burial (2009)

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    Hailing from Norway this band plays some kind of mix of Doom Metal and Death Metal. The overall sound of the band is very old school as you cannot find any elements of modern metal in their music, and while sometimes this is a good thing it does not work too well for Syrach.

    “A Dark Burial” presents us with 6 tracks of ‘slow’ death metal that will bore you until the albums best song “A Mourner’s Kiss”. I was lost and found my self checking how long did the song had left for the first three tracks, then got to the best song, and again into the same droning trance that was about to put me to sleep.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Ahab – The Divinity Of Oceans (2009)

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    After their killer debut “The Call of the Wretched Sea” I had been waiting impatiently for the bands next album and luckily I got their latest opus “The Divinity Of Oceans” in the mail a few weeks ago.

    I must say I have never been a huge fan of Funeral Doom Metal, because I think is really boring, when I heard Ahab’s debut I could not claim this at all, the band’s debut was very heavy and slow in nature, but the band is very skillful at creating intricate and complex songs that last for what it seems a few minutes but in fact they are pretty long.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Ava Inferi – Blood Of Bacchus (2009)

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    Having formed in 2005 Ava Inferi presents us their 3rd full length album. The band shows great maturity and improvement in their already characteristic sound, with “Blood Of Bacchus”.

    Ava Inferi’s mixture of Doom Metal with Gothic elements is unparalleled, blending the traditional Doom riffs with mesmerizing female vocals provided by Carmen Simões, and the guitar work is provided by none other than Rune "Blasphemer" Eriksen from Aura Noir (the self labeled ugliest band in the world) and Mayhem, which he left in order to fully concentrate on Ava Inferi.

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