Doom – Page 84 – Wonderbox Metal

The Fifth Alliance – Death Poems (Review)

This is the second album from The Fifth Alliance, who are a Post-Metal/Sludge band from the Netherlands.

Dark, gloomy Post-Metal meets harsh Sludge. Sounds good? It sure does. This is one for fans of bands like Obscure Sphinx, Light Bearer and Year of No Light. Death Poems lives up to these lofty comparisons.

These tracks are exploratory and Doom-filled, featuring the kind of negatively-charged, highly emotive atmospheres that a lot of bands would kill for. The Post-Metal build/release mechanic is used well here, but this is tempered by a more melancholic influence that keeps the tracks evened out, regardless of whether this is done via subtle, reflective sections or heavier ones that sound as if tidal waves are crashing down.

The singer’s screams are of the throat-shredding variety, full of unrequited feelings and anger. Her cleans are rare, but when they appear they’re full of loss and woe, all done in an ethereal-yet-substantial way; plaintive and loaded with real emotion.

This is music that manages to combine the soft caress of despair with the hammer of aggressive catharsis. It’s definitely a recommended listen and one for all fans of interesting, Doom-laden music.

Phased – Aeon (Review)

Phased are from Switzerland and play Psychedelic Doom Metal. This is their fifth album.

Phased are a familiar proposition in many ways. Taking the blueprint of a band like Electric Wizard, they proceed to play 44 minutes of music that’s similar enough to what we’re used to so that it’s instantly welcome, but with enough individuality to ensure that they’re not written off as a mere copy.

As with most things to do with music, this is subjective of course. For me, although this release has enough familiar markers from bands like Electric Wizard, Warhorse and, (to a lesser extent), Black Sabbath that it feels like an old friend, it also retains its own identity enough to be a worthy listen. In fact, if you cross Electric Wizard and Warhorse, you have a good idea of where Phased are coming from.

Understated, strangely-inhuman vocals act as just another instrument and can almost be overlooked as you get caught up in the riffs and confident melodies. Having said that, the overall impact of the songs would be lessened without them though.

The laid back, confident swagger of the Doom riffs and the general vibe of easy-going Space Rock is a beguiling combination. It’s hard not to like a band like this when they lock into a hypnotic groove.

So, will Phased do it for you, or have they missed their mark? Have a listen and see what you think.

Mammoth Storm – Fornjot (Review)

Mammoth Storm are from Sweden. This is their début album and they play Doom.

Thick, heavy guitars, groove the size of tsunamis and colossal riffs? It can only be Mammoth Storm’s first album. This is heavy, ponderous Doom with a juicy Stoner streak running deep through it.

Charismatic vocals extend out over the songs, animated just above a drawl to provide focus and character to the gargantuan riffs and huge beats.

The guitars are a definite selling point of this music, as the heavy rhythms are meaty as Hell, while the more fragile leads almost have a Post-Metal transcendental quality to them. These are anchored in place by the more earthy guitars so that they remain firmly a part of the music.

The combination of the droning, repetitive nature of the rhythms and the exploratory, unbounded leads make for songs that form a soundscape of textures, writ large in Doom. The vocals cement the idea of a journey through this soundscape, guided by the album art and propelled endlessly forward by the understated-yet-essential drums.

Atmospheric layers are built with ease, immersing the listener in the moods and feelings that the band wish to evoke. It’s extremely effective; it’s easy to slip into these songs and lose yourself in the band’s emotive performance.

This is a substantial début in more ways than one, with the band creating a conceptual storyline to accompany the weighty music. At 55 minutes in length there is a lot of content here to enjoy.

I think this album is pretty much a must-get for any fan of Doom Metal. Check it out.

Disenchanter – Strange Creations (Review)

This is the début album from US Doom Metal band Disenchanter.

Having enjoyed their previous EP On Through Portals, this album is a welcome chance to catch up with the band and see how they have taken advantage of having a full-length release.

Well, here we have 55 minutes of quality music; on this release the production is heavier and more professional, the playing crisper and tighter without losing their easy-feeling style, and the songwriting skills have been honed to a fine, sharp point.

Disenchanter play Doom Metal with a good Stoner component, which means that the songs almost roll out of the speakers with an easy confidence and a self-assured air.

The singer has a rich, powerful voice that seems to have a natural presence all of its own, irrespective of the warm, heavy riffs that frequently accompany it. Her voice is strong and compelling.

My favourite tracks are the longer ones, which take their time to build and explore their musical horizons more than their shorter, more upbeat brethren.

Female-fronted Doom Metal is something I’ve been enjoying more and more recently and Disenchanter are a really good example of why.

Recommended.

Ad Nauseum – Ad Nauseum (Review)

Ad Nauseum are from the US and this is their latest EP. They play Sludge Metal.

This is harsh, noise-infected, Hardcore-infused Sludge that’s ugly, uncompromising and brutal.

The shouted vocals are aggressively nasty and purposely blunt and ugly. They barely sound human and make all manner of beastly noises, spreading poison and hatred to all who would listen.

This is barbed and raw, full of spite, bile and a visceral sense of derangement. The songs crawl and bludgeon their way through the playing time and listening to Ad Nauseum is like spending 20 minutes confronting bitter pain.

The noise influence is worked well into the tracks and feels like a part of the music rather then being added in at the last moment. This works with the caustic guitars to create a disturbing atmosphere of decayed rot.

Faster parts are included to really rub the sandpaper on the salt-covered wound. Like a festering, open sore that’s exposed over and over to infected materials, these sections ram home the futility of ever trying to get clean and healthy again. Better to embrace the dirt and live in the ground with the worms and discarded flesh.

A recommended listen for all fans of filth and misery.

Livid – Sint (Review)

Livid are a Doom Metal band from the US. This is their début release.

Featuring two tracks and a running time of 23 minutes, this is a murky, dirty introduction to a new band that shows a lot of promise for the future.

Monk-like clean vocals, huge, Sludge-drenched riffs, warm, earthy drums and a nasty, filthy bass sound mean that Livid easily have what it takes to make a mark.

The music is divided into two parts. On the first, we’re introduced to Livid’s hypnotic, trance-like qualities that they inject into their music, borne out of the repetitive dirge of the low and lazy riffing style and wandering drums.

The vocals sail above the other instruments, a sharp contrast to the rough, Sludgy music. It’s almost as if they’re completely separate from it; untouched by the filth, decay and disease of the underworld. They’re clean in every sense of the word, like angels flying above daemonic undercurrents. It’s a beguiling juxtaposition that shouldn’t work, but it really, really does, adding to the hypnotic nature of the tracks.

As the music crawls to a close after 14 minutes, it’s time to hand things over to the second part. How does this differ from the first? Well, at just under 9 minutes it’s a bit shorter, but it also differs slightly in pace and mood, as this track is more mid-paced and lively, although this is all relative, of course, as it’s still Doom Metal.

The vocals are similar in style to the first track, albeit not quite as detached and separate. They do their job amiably, however, and the song as a whole still retains a hypnotic groove.

Livid have created something quite enjoyable here. Give them a listen.

Arrant Saudade – The Peace of Solitude (Review)

Arrant Saudade are a Funeral Doom band from the UK. This is their début album.

Featuring members of Aphonic Threnody and Abysmal Growls of Despair, you know there’s already a wealth of Doom experience and knowledge behind this release before you even hit play.

And when you do hit play, it starts off gently with piano, and then slowly awakens a the sleeping spirit of despair.

Slow, drawn-out and dripping with lost hope, these 5 songs take 44 minutes out of your life only to replace them with a very real and visceral sense of woe and misery.

Monstrous vocals are deep and unrelenting, growling their way through the solitude of the music like brutal and unwelcome guests.

So far, so Funeral Doom. But then Arrant Saudade do the unexpected and introduce clean vocals, and suddenly everything changes. Sometimes ethereal and sometimes sombre, these choir-like vocals are expertly performed and perfectly judged. When the angelic cleans soar above the beautiful music and seem to join with the resplendent melodies to create something greater than the sum of its Funeral Doom parts…it makes quite an impact I can tell you. Post-Funeral Doom? Sure, why not.

At any rate, the heavenly cleans and the dreamy, melancholic music seem to wash over you like liquid sound and it really is an uplifting and transcendent experience in many ways.

Okay, so not everything is perfect about this album – there are few which can lay claim to this grandiose title – but it’s hugely accomplished and, importantly, does something a bit different with the style. The core of the sub-genre is there with all of the hallmark traits, but The Peace of Solitude is far more emotive and atmospheric than most of its peers, gleaming with dazzling brightness and lustrous with magnificent despondency.

In some ways the growls are the weakest parts of these songs – it’s not that they’re badly done, (they’re not), it’s just that the rest of the music is so very well done that they have some catching up to do.

A relatively minor quibble though, in what is a very impressive slab of uplifting misery.

Highly recommended.

Cult of Occult – Five Degrees of Insanity (Review)

Cult of Occult are a Doom/Sludge band from France. This is their latest album.

This is a band that the word CRUSHING was designed to describe, (yes, in capitals no less). There are five songs here; 65 minutes of misanthropic content.

How to describe Cult of Occult’s nihilistic, hate-fuelled music? They essentially take all of the pissed off, angry highlights of Sludge Metal, (Eyehategod, Charger), and draw them out to epic Doom lengths, resulting in colossal slabs of misery-drenched heaviness that are so caustic and scathing that the songs seem to have a painfully physically presence.

It’s not all ugly belligerence though, as the band skilfully navigate these seas of filth in ways that seem to harness the darkness into tsunamis of torment that crash and build onto and into each other, creating thick, distressing atmospheres.

These songs are deceptively simple though, and upon closer inspection you see that there’s more going on within the oceans of distortion and heaviness than you might think on first glance. The tides of riffs and groove-laden guitars hide a songwriting-skill that belies their nasty, noxious nature.

The singer’s impressive snarl is just shades of anger and repressed rage given form and feeling. Coupled with the Doom/Sludge of the music it seems it’s finally getting the outlet it needs to spew forth its venomous diatribes.

The dirge-like, repetitive nature of the relentlessly crushing music is hypnotic in its delivery and Five Degrees of Insanity is one of those releases that can do no wrong for me.

This is addictive like the worst of drugs. You don’t just listen to this, you feel it.

Kowloon Walled City – Grievances (Review)

This is the third album from US Sludge Metal band Kowloon Walled City.

As a fan of their previous work, this is one I was looking forward to listening to.

Slowly expanding their Sludge Metal sound over the years to incorporate more elements of Post-Metal/Post-Hardcore, the Kowloon Walled City of 2015 is a lean, hungry beast that produces slow, heavy songs that pulse with an underlying energy.

Like a lot of their album covers, including this new one, their music speaks of an urban minimalism and decay. Haunting melodies and and riffs are covered in a modern veneer that’s showing the age of what lies just underneath. Rather than being a bad thing as one might assume, this allows the band an air of instant authority and gravitas, as if their music is older than it actually is.

The songs explore this broken down landscape with the relentless inevitability of something that knows what it’s going to find so can therefore take its time in getting there.

The vocals have a little less sharpness to them on this release and sound a little smoother, more liquid and malleable in delivery. The singer still has a quirkiness to his delivery though, and if anything this side of his voice is more apparent on Grievances than on previous releases.

Kowloon Walled City have returned with another slab of melancholic, dystopian Doom-Sludge, and I’m all the happier for it.

As the singer shouts out on the title-track – “Celebrate”!

Mammoth Salmon – Last Vestige of Humanity (Review)

This is the début album from US Stoner/Doom band Mammoth Salmon.

We met this band previously with their enjoyable Call of the Mammoth EP.

On this new release the band continue their warm, organic and massively chunky and fuzzy approach to the genre. The songs are like a friendlier, less-evil, more-welcoming version of Electric Wizard mixed with a bit of Melvins.

The band also seem bigger and better this time around, in pretty much every respect. The guitars are more in-your-face and the vocals more confident.

The riffs are big and the grooves are colossal. The guitars and charismatic vocals are frequently in perfect sync, complementing each other and creating songs that have real presence.

Occasionally the distortion fades somewhat and the band indulge in a bit of lazy, exploratory mood-setting with a casual solo over the lonesome bass, almost as an afterthought.

Very nice.

This album has personality, songs and giant riffs. What more do you want from this kind of band?