Doubtsower – Nothing Reduced to Everything (Review)

Doubtsower is a one-man Welsh doom metal band and this is his third album.

A new Doubtsower record is always well-received. 2021’s Asphyxiation of a Seasick Soul hit hard,  as did 2022’s The Endless Shadow of Despicable Power, but a little less so than its predecessor. Now comes Nothing Reduced to Everything, providing us with a new immersive journey to experience.

On Nothing Reduced to Everything the artist behind Doubtsower takes his engaging doom deeper into experimental electronic/industrial waters, but without losing its heard of doom. The promo blurb sets the scene by stating that it “further blurs the lines between blackened doom, post-metal, stoner, and electronic experimentation”, which gives an overall idea of what to expect on this new album, although I’d swap out stoner for sludge, as I don’t really hear anything too stoner-related on this.

Nothing Reduced to Everything manifests as Doubtsower’s longest release, with an extra track when compared to the two albums previous, and an imposing 63-minute running time. This extra space has allowed the artist to expand and spread into the music’s duration, taking what came before it and widening its scope. In this way, the album boasts an even more textured approach than the previous records already benefited from.

Edged with noise, layered with dark ambience, and enhanced by electronica, this is bleak and desolate doom that’s raw and heartfelt. The music’s atmospheric soundscapes are rich and dark, drawing the listener in through explorations of paths less travelled. The artist behind Doubtsower is also an electronic artist, which bleeds over into Nothing Reduced to Everything‘s music even more this time around. This succeeds in allowing for the creation of music that takes the basics of the doom/sludge/post-metal styles and subverts them, while simultaneous honouring them. The music is crafted with an individual interpretation of doom that comes from the benefit of an outside perspective, one not typically encountered in the genre.

Doubtsower’s doom-via-electronica style is a compelling one. Nothing Reduced to Everything takes the tentative electronic elements of its predecessors one step further, firmly embedding them into a framework with many slow moving parts, all expertly managed by the controlling mind behind the band. In some ways it’s still ridiculous to me that Doubtsower’s music is not more widely known, as this is high quality stuff, although I do concede that the niche for this sort of thing is clearly a small one in the grand scheme of things. Regardless, I remain a firm Doubtsower adherent, and Nothing Reduced to Everything is once again a huge win for experimental doom fans who are fortunate enough to encounter it in the wild.