My Dying Bride – Page 6 – Wonderbox Metal

Majestic Downfall/The Slow Death – Split (Review)

Majestic Downfall are from Mexico and The Slow Death are from Australia. Both play Doom Metal.

This is a much longer split than the norm – 67 minutes in total with each band giving roughly half of that. It also boasts quite a striking album cover. Nice.

Majestic Downfall are first off with a crushingly heavy start to things. They play Doom Metal with a slow Death Metal influence – Death/Doom or Doom/Death, whichever you prefer.

Ready comparisons to newer bands would be the likes of Eye of Solitude and that ilk. For older bands think Paradise Lost/My Dying Bride gone full-on Doom/Death. Majestic Downfall are not a band who are totally mournful and miserable though as a lot of the riffs are more brutal or energetic and they have faster moments too.

The vocals are super-deep and the music is clear and strong. Melodies are a large part of the band’s sound and they make full use of them to produce enjoyable tracks that are largely colossally heavy but also show shading with their use of lighter sections.

With a generally more upbeat take on the genre this is a good listen and makes a decent impression.

After Majestic Downfall’s crisp energetic Doom Metal The Slow Death are like a funeral procession of depressive soundscapes. The Slow Death are a much more mournful proposition and big on proto-Gothic atmosphere.

They can be said to share similar influences and a base sound to Majestic Death but they process it in a different way and the results are therefore different as well. The Slow Death are a lot more downbeat in sound, (although they do still have upbeat moments), and the overall vibe is darker and more negative. Think a band like The Sins of Thy Beloved only with a more subtle Gothic influence.

Melodic guitars draped in misery and rotting dreams are the leading lights in this showcase of loss. The band create dirges that hold interest and have some good riffs in them.

The vocals alternate between clean, ethereal, haunting female singing and deep, dark male growls. It’s a contrast that was done to death years and years ago in the Gothic Metal style but one that’s not so popular these days. I find it makes me a tad nostalgic, even. Regardless, The Slow Death pull it off with style and it sounds almost refreshing to hear the clean female/rough male vocals trading off once again.

A top quality split from two bands who have presented two different takes on a core style. It’s especially worth getting due to the length as each band essentially contribute a mini album’s worth of material to this split.

Be sure to check this out and then track it down.

Doom:VS – Earthless (Review)

This is the third album from Doom:VS. Coming from Sweden this is a one-man project featuring a guest vocalist.

This is bleak and sombre Death/Doom Metal that’s haunting and beautiful despite, or perhaps because of, the misery and anguish it portrays.

The album slowly unveils under a cloud of desolation and heartbreak. Mournful riffs seem to slide out of hidden openings and colossal growls give a solid and forceful outlet for the emotive music.

The guitars are rich and textured, as one would expect from a release such as this. The music works well to evoke the necessary feelings of woe and despair required from this style of Metal and yet also manages to find beauty in the negativity.

There are no weaknesses with the recording and the songwriting is top notch. In fact, unless you just don’t care for this style of music you’ll be hard pressed to find any real flaws here.

Taking cues from My Dying Bride, as it’s pretty impossible not to do for this type of Metal, they also pay attention to other areas of the Metal globe and have hints of bands like Agalloch in the mix.

One of the best things about this album is that it never gets boring, stale, dull or repetitive, which is no mean feat for a genre that’s essentially slow and melodic. This is a testament to the talent of Doom:VS and the album sails by in a blur of emotive dirges.

Along with bands like Eye of Solitude and Decembre Noir, Doom:VS are one of the very best bands in the Doom/Death genre now.

Immerse yourself in their despair.

Nightfell – The Living Ever Mourn (Review)

Nightfell are from the US and play Death/Doom Metal.

This is heavy, very heavy, and darkly melodic. The riffs collide and smash down, like Entombed playing a funeral dirge. A collision of Old-School Death Metal and Crusty, Sludge Doom; this is reminiscent of an older Metal landscape whilst concurrently sounding fresh and invigorating.

The music has a personality about it that recalls Old-School Death/Doom Metal from the likes of Dismember, Sentenced, Paradise Lost, Amon Amarth, My Dying Bride, etc. – bands with character that were leaders rather than followers.

The dual vocals rasp, growl and bark their way across each other and are as harsh and unforgiving as you would expect. Added to these are the odd spoken passage and semi-clean to keep things interesting. The vocals have their own personality and character and are very much in keeping with the rest of the music in this regard.

The Old-School Doom Metal riffs really pile up on each other and the feeling of having stepped back in time is strong. However, none of it comes across as nostalgic; rather Nightfell are merely treading the same ground as many of the greats from yesteryear and are looking to put this style of music back on the map once more.

The songs come with plenty of hooks; you’ll wonder how a song like Altars To Wrath isn’t a cover song, so authentically Swedish and catchy it is. Each song has been poured over with love and passion and a monster has been created.

The band make the most of their dark melodies to create a bleakly rich atmosphere dosed up on Doom and heavy on the Metal.

This is an album that demands to be heard.

Decembre Noir – A Discouraged Believer (Review)

Decembre Noir are from Germany and play Depressive/Doom/Death Metal.

This is a release dripping with emotion, raw and bloody. The songs are instantly recognisable as carriers for the dark disease of misery and hopelessness.

They take their cues from bands such as early Opeth, Katatonia, Paradise Lost and My Dying Bride. They build on this classic template by injecting their own vital sense of songwriting into the mix and effectively breathe life into a subgenre that can easily become stale and overdone in the wrong hands.

Decembre Noir know what they’re doing though. The crisp and powerful production meshed with the emotive riffs and the highly accomplished growled vocals mean that this is no amateur piece of work.

The tracks summon up their negative energies and deliver them with a strong Metal wrapping that can easily hold its own.

And just when you think you’ve got them down, the last song Escape to the Sun throws up some gorgeous clean male/female vocals in a gloriously luxurious section. It’s brief, and all the more special for it.

The band take the listener on a journey through melancholy conveyed via the medium of Metal, and what a trip it is.

Decembre Noir have that certain special something that the bands mentioned above all have/had in abundance. Get your ears around this one, it’s a keeper.

Dea Marica – Curse of the Haunted (Review)

This is the second release from UK Doom merchants Dea Marica.

They play sorrow-filled down-beat Doom Metal with a maudlin pace and sombre melodies. If you use a band such as My Dying Bride as a starting point you’ll be in the right area stylistically, but Dea Marica don’t sound like cheap knock-offs as the melodies and structures of their songs are not the same.

Vocally they have extremely brutal growls that are deeper than the blackest pits of Hades, but they mainly use clean, almost operatic vocals that are impressively realised and contribute a lot to the depth of the songs.

The album sweeps you along in its emotional embrace and forces you to come face to face with all of those small, dark things you’ve been avoiding thinking about for years. The epic melodies and exquisite vocal harmonies rub shoulders with the guttural vocals and heavier riffs and the band switch between the two seamlessly; sometimes it’s a sudden change and sometimes it’s a gradual build up, but either way the general mood is retained and the song is a winner.

It should also be mentioned that this is also a very catchy album full of hooks to grab the listener, albeit in a down-tempo Doom Metal way. You’ll be wanting to play these epic songs again almost as soon as the last chord has faded.

This is a haunting, dark and memorable album. Highly recommended.

The Gardnerz – It All Fades (Review)

The Gardnerz are a Swedish Doom/Death Metal band that comfortably straddle both genres, taking the best of both for their nefarious purposes.

As a stylistic starting point; think of the old-school Anathema, My Dying Bride, Paradise Lost, etc. sound, and for a more modern reference point think bands like Eye of Solitude. Powerful Metal that embraces both the past and the present to deliver a portal into another world where this band stride as giants and lord of their strange world.

The songs immediately suck you into their orbit and transport you to the environment that the band portray.

Vocals are varied and consist of growls, shrieks and clean singing, all used to great effect and helping to cement the atmosphere. The singer is adept at switching styles quickly and effectively, enhancing the feeling of the songs and working with the music to create inspired slabs of Metal that you can’t help but be carried away by.

This EP contains 5 original songs of emotive, darkened Metal and a surprising and very-different cover of Darkthrone’s Transilvanian Hunger.

The Gardnerz have created an EP that is chock full of great tracks and enough talent to put lesser bands to shame. What are you waiting for?