Doom – Page 89 – Wonderbox Metal

Fangs of the Molossus – Fangs of the Molossus (Review)

Fangs of the Molossus are from Italy and play Doom Metal. This is their début album.

This is orthodox Traditional Doom Metal with a healthy sprinkling of psychedelia to add to the charm.

It’s an authentic and faithful take on the genre and the band do it justice.

Their sound is suitably occult and the songs have a jammed vibe that is loose enough to sound natural but structured enough to not be sloppy.

This is slow and ponderous Metal with classic melodies and some quality guitar-work and riffs. The rhythm guitars work up a good atmosphere and some of the extended lead/solo work is exquisite.

The vocals are quite low in the mix and work as atmosphere-enhancers and an extra instrument rather than being the focal point as they are in most bands.

An enjoyably sullen album to stick on and kick back to. Recommended.

Minsk – The Crash & The Draw (Review)

Minsk are a Post-Metal band from the US and this is their fourth album.

I’m a big fan of Minsk’s 2009 album, With Echoes in the Movement of Stone, so have been eager to hear this latest release of theirs.

Coming from a Post-Metal view that takes in the stunning panoramas of Isis, Neurosis and Cult of Luna, Minsk were never as well-known as their contemporaries but still managed to hugely impress those lucky enough to hear them.

They have now roused themselves from their six year slumber and produced a hefty piece of work in The Crash & The Draw – 11 tracks, 75 minutes of music.

Well, there’s a lot going on here. Minsk certainly don’t lack for either ambition or talent. This is an album of moods and atmospheres. In the best Post-Metal tradition they know how to build you up and then knock you down.

Psychedelic, Progressive and heavily percussive elements work alongside the crushing guitars and expansive sense of space that the band create.

Emotionally these tracks take in pretty much everything, from the beautiful to the nightmarish, sometimes even in the same song.

The songs are varied, multi-textured and rich with evocative and emotive soundscapes. There’s a lot of depth and nuance to these compositions and it takes a good few spins to fully grasp what’s going on here in some instances.

Much like Nero Di Marte‘s latest work, The Crash & The Draw seems to build upon itself with each listen until the music acts like waves, reinforcing itself so that eventually it just drowns everything else out and you truly begin to wonder how you ever thought there was anything else.

This is truly an album of wonders and otherworldly journeys.

What’s stopping you from listening to this right now?

Lucifer’s Fall – Lucifer’s Fall (Review)

Lucifer’s Fall are from Australia and play Doom Metal. This is their début album.

For fans of Reverend Bizarre, Saint Vitus, Black Sabbath and Electric Wizard; this is Traditional Doom Metal with a small nod to modern Doom, just enough to give it a dark edge.

With an audible bass that makes a valuable contribution, it falls to the bass and drums to provide a firm foundation on which the lazy rhythm guitar is built whilst the lead guitar sets off in hopeful exploration.

The vocals are as you would expect for this style; loose, mournful and performed with enough character to warrant attention.

The songs are classically composed and written with a true love of the genre. All of the requisite parts of a Traditional Doom Metal band are in place, with Reverend Bizarre in particular seemingly deserving of special reverence.

If you are on the fence with this kind of style or have just had your fill then you probably won’t especially take to Lucifer’s Fall. If you still have more room for another band like this in your collection though, then give this a listen and see what you think.

Lying Figures – A World of My Own (Review)

Lying Figures are a Death/Doom band from France and this is their second EP.

Funereal riffs and Doom melodies are a firm basis of these songs. The winding melodies and dirge workouts pervade the EP like a miasma of misery.

Screaming and growling vocals are used alongside sorrowful cleans to provide a multitude of vocal textures, including a Gothic feeling from the cleans.

The overall feeling is of a band taking the Death/Doom formula and updating for the modern era; whilst it is recognisable as Death/Doom, the band have tinkered with the style enough so that it has a contemporary feel to it.

The songs provide a relatively laid back take on the genre as well, even when the harsh screams and growls are taken into consideration. It’s Doom Metal easy listening, but in a good way. The aggression that they have is contained and channelled appropriately and the songs benefit from this focus of intent.

Lying Figures take elements of bands such as Amorphis, Moonspell, My Dying Bride and Katatonia and fuse them into their own work. Suffice to say, if you like the aforementioned bands I imagine you’ll like this too.

This is an enjoyable EP that bodes well for the future of the band. Let’s see what they do next.

Ufomammut – Ecate (Review)

Ufomammut are from Italy and play Doom Metal. This is their seventh album.

Ufomammut create confident, exploratory Doom that builds atmosphere in the best tradition of Neurosis, Yob and the like.

This is music that’s both heavy and nuanced, having the instant appeal to draw you in and the depth of longevity to last.

Ufomammut are undoubtedly heavy, but they also have their considered side. The songs are mature and well-written works of contemporary, otherworldly Doom that take you on a journey through waters uncharted.

I like that the band incorporate psychedelic influences into their sound without diluting the core nature of their Doom Metal aesthetic. Strange sounds and effects enhance the delivery of the tracks, giving the listener even more to bite into.

The vocals are low-key affairs in some ways, almost lost in the barrage of apocalyptic riffs and thundering, winding drumming. They’re used less as vocals in their own right and more as another weapon in their musical arsenal, merging with the music at a cellular level.

I’m always a fan of songs where the bass makes a noticeable difference to the performance and Ecate uses the bass wisely. It sounds good and works well across these tracks.

After this many releases Ufomammut clearly know what they’re doing and Ecate is yet another top album of quality Doom. If anything, this is a step forward for the band as Ecate really is pretty damn good.

Crawl – Old Wood and Broken Dreams (Review)

This is the debut album by US Sludge band Crawl.

Crawl have come to stink up the place with their dirty brand of Sludge.

This is Southern-tinged Sludge Metal with a healthy swagger and a groove that won’t quit. Heaviness is a given, of course; you can’t play Sludge any other way. Crawl build on this core of heaviness with enough attitude and confidence to knock over the hardiest drunk.

Crawl have a meaty sound that’s bound to satisfy all of your dark cravings. It brings out the best, (worst), in the band and they sound both professional and murky at the same time.

The vocals are as unhinged and venomous as you would expect. Sounding highly acidic, they rip themselves out of the swampy music to violently scar anyone unlucky enough to be caught in their way.

These songs are infectious and instantly appealing if you have a love of all things filthy and downtrodden. The inclusion of some longer tracks gives the band an interesting edge over some similar bands and only adds to their appeal.

Unusually for a band of this ilk, there is a bit of light included here and there. Some songs have a few passages that can almost be described as hopeful. It’s a slight Post-Metal edge to their Sludge that adds another layer to their already impressive sound; the extended intro to Pilldust is a perfect example of this.

This is a firm winner for fans of Eyehategod, Fistula, Servants of the Mist, Corecom, Primitive Man, Dopethrone, etc.

One to get your grubby mitts on for sure.

Below the Sun – Envoy (Review)

Below the Sun are a Sludge band from Russia and this is their début album.

This is Atmospheric Sludge Metal that’s as heavy as a rhino and as daunting as a pack of predators. Their sound also includes elements of Funeral Doom, Post-Metal and even a bit of a Black Metal feeling in places; anything to heighten the atmosphere and draw the listener further in to their dark domain.

Absolutely colossal vocals stab out of the swirling darkness like natural disasters striking the unwitting and the unwary. They’re loud, inhuman and utterly compelling. They’re also used sparingly, and for the vast majority of the 59 minute playing time the instruments are the firm focus of attention. This works well, as the vocals are so terrifying that any more exposure to them might have the listener running for the hills in fear.

Below the Sun excel at Post-Metal build-and-release mechanics and wrap this up with a Sludgy ambience and general aura of pessimistic negativity that really is quite powerfully done.

The guitars batter, pamper, bruise and heal. At the end of the album you feel like you’ve been through the wringer both physically and emotionally, but you’re more than willing to do it again. This is an album that can only improve with age and repeated spins. Initially you can tell it’s obviously very good indeed, but on subsequent listens it really reveals its delights.

Music like this is never going to be a disappointment. The emotional investment of a band like this is always worth it and there’s so much here to discover and respond to. Envoy is an apt name, as it feels like you’re entering an unknown landscape, the first to explore these strange, exotic climes. You’re not alone though, as Below the Sun are your guides, shining a black light into all of the scary places and somehow making them feel even more harrowing, yet enticing at the same time.

If you’re a fan of Doom, Sludge, Post-Metal or just emotive and engaging music in general then Envoy is an album to journey to far off places to.

Very highly recommended.

Primitive Man – Home is Where the Hatred is (Review)

Primitive Man are from the US and play Doom/Sludge. This is their latest EP.

Ahhh the latest Primitive Man release. I always enjoy their work. A band that personify heavy, nasty music perfectly.

And what do they bring us this time? Here we have music that was left out of all of the happy playlists when you were young. This is a style of music that people only get into when they’re older, jaded and consumed by hatred. Primitive Man feed on this.

The first song Loathe starts off with a churning maelstrom of tense riffs and chaotic drumming, only to slow down to a crawl once the pitch-black growling vocals come in. Crikey the singer has a good voice.

The rest of the songs keep up the high quality-control levels. Dirty Sludge Metal cascades out of the speakers in an onslaught of hatred, bile and disgust.

This EP is a 31 minute Sludge workout that takes in pummelling Doom, filthy Crust/Grind, Blackened guitars and riffs the size of tsunamis to create the aural equivalent of a torturously slow heart attack. Home is Where the Hatred is is Sludge heaven, if there is such a thing.

It’s hard not to love this band. I mean, assuming you like evil Sludge Metal of course. And if you do, Primitive Man are an absolute must.

Wells Valley – Matter as Regent (Review)

Wells Valley are a Portuguese Post-Metal band. This is their début album.

Blending the claustrophobic swirl of Neurosis with the exploratory mindset of Tool and a touch of the Avant-Garde, Wells Valley have created an album that plays by its own rules and lives by its own aesthetics. I think the closest comparison would kind of be a cross between Rabies Caste and Scarlet.

This is not a normal album, and I mean that in an entirely good way. The band have chosen to take a sub-genre that has pretty lax rules at the best of times and experiment with it to create something that may not be entirely new but it’s as close as we can reasonably expect these days.

The band play around with the Post-Metal formula just enough so that Matter as Regent sounds innovative and fresh, but not so much that it strays to far from what makes Post-Metal such a compelling and interesting listen.

The music is involving and engages the brain as it twists and turns through its various incarnations. The band write songs that seem to be mutations of the standard template; it’s as if the music has been stripped back to the bare bones of the style and then rebuilt in Wells Valley’s vision of what this kind of music should sound like.

The emphasis on the diversity, dynamics and pacing of the songs on Matter as Regent is noticeable, both in the music and the vocals. They don’t seem to like to repeat themselves too often.

The guitars are set to a level where they’re intense and emotive without being overly heavy. Expansive riffs and atypical rhythms run the gamut from expressive to functional to esoteric; there’s enough instant appeal to be endearing but enough depth of composition to keep you returning for more.

Wells Valley have released an intriguing and ambitious album that not only largely succeeds in being greater than the sum of its parts, but also achieves the even greater accolade of sounding mainly like itself.

Quality.

Brothers of the Sonic Cloth – Brothers of the Sonic Cloth (Review)

Brothers of the Sonic Cloth are a Stoner Doom band from the US and this is their début album.

Brothers of the Sonic Cloth are heavy and rocking, which is the Stoner influence; they’re also slow and mournful, which is where the Doom element comes in; however they also have a nasty side that manifests in the Sludge part of their sound.

The vocals are nicely varied, with everything from harsh shouting to crawling drawls. All styles are performed perfectly in line with the emotive music and the variety sounds natural rather than forced.

Like the vocals, there’s a lot on offer musically. The band aren’t one dimensional at all and the songs here truly do incorporate Stoner, Doom and Sludge into a cohesive package that covers a lot of ground during the 45 minutes playing time. The band are all seasoned veterans so I should expect no less really.

I’ve connected with this album on a deeper level than I thought I would. It’s an album that is diverse and feels like it takes you on a journey, which is a feeling I love in my music. More than that though, it’s the sound they’ve created; it’s heavy enough to be crushing but nuanced enough to retain character and personality.

Well, this album has been a surprise and a treat. Get ready to worship.