Tribunal are a Gothic doom metal band from Canada and this is their debut album.
The Weight of Remembrance offers a 48-minute Gothic doom metal journey into darkness and sombre atmospheres. The promo states that this is for fans of My Dying Bride, Candlemass, Type O Negative, Paradise Lost, Occultation, Dream Unending, and Pentagram, and this gives a Continue reading “Tribunal – The Weight of Remembrance (Review)”
This is the second album from Canadian metallers Ritual Dictates.
Featuring current and ex-members of 3 Inches of Blood and Revocation, this is an atypical album that probably doesn’t sound like you’re expecting it to. It certainly took me by surprise, in a very pleasant way. Continue reading “Ritual Dictates – No Great Loss (Review)”
This is the fourth album from A Pale Horse Named Death, a Gothic/doom metal band from the US.
Featuring the ex-drummer of both Type O Negative and Life of Agony, we last caught up with A Pale Horse Named Death on 2019’s When the World Becomes Undone, which I enjoyed at the time, but ultimately didn’t live up to the promise of the band’s first two records. Infernum in Terra is here to rectify that. Continue reading “A Pale Horse Named Death – Infernum in Terra (Review)”
This is the sixth album from one-man German black/doom metal metal band The Ruins of Beverast.
The Ruins of Beverast’s music is an intriguing and exotic combination of atmospheric black and doom metal. Okay, so what’s so exotic about it, you might ask? Well, it’s the artist’s sublime ability to combine lesser-heard influences, (an occasional touch of Continue reading “The Ruins of Beverast – The Thule Grimoires (Review)”
This is the fourth album from US progressive metallers Oceans of Slumber.
Oceans of Slumber is the much-anticipated follow up to 2018’s well-received The Banished Heart,
Oceans of Slumber’s progressive metal takes in elements of doom and Gothic metal to produce music that hits a lot of emotional highs, while still having kick where it counts. The band combine heaviness with ethereal beauty. Some of Continue reading “Oceans of Slumber – Oceans of Slumber (Review)”
This is the third album from A Pale Horse Named Death, a Gothic/doom metal band from the US.
Featuring the ex-drummer of both Type O Negative and Life of Agony, When the World Becomes Undone is the band’s latest release after a long wait; their second album came out in 2013. Continue reading “A Pale Horse Named Death – When the World Becomes Undone (Review)”
This is the fourth album from Belgian dark metal/rock band Diablo Blvd.
Just take a look at that album cover. I mean, how could you not be intrigued by that?
When you delve in, you’ll find that Diablo Blvd play a mix of classic and Continue reading “Diablo Blvd – Zero Hour (Review)”
Warped Cross are a sludge metal band from Germany and this is their début album.
This is underground filthy sludge metal that takes inspiration from bands like Eyehategod, Crowbar, Down, Corrosion of Conformity, Cathedral and Electric Wizard. There’s a hint of, (dirtied-up), grunge in their sound, (not too dissimilar from the recent Boss Keloid album), as well as some pinches of old-school punk. There’s even a touch of Type O Negative in places.
This is raw and utterly unpolished, but Continue reading “Warped Cross – Abbot of Unreason (Review)”
Tor Marrock are a Gothic Metal band from Wales. This is their second album.
Tor Marrock play Gothic Metal with a plethora of different influences; Black, Death and Doom Metal are all represented to various degrees. The tracks are an interesting combination of these influences and make the band quite hard to pigeonhole in some ways.
For reference points I’d say an unholy mix of Type O Negative, Celtic Frost, Paradise Lost and Moonspell. Essentially it’s an Old-School Peaceville sound updated with a few different elements from some of the aforementioned bands and genres.
The songs are quite catchy and are quite accomplished in the verse/chorus technique. You could almost sing along, if you fancied trying to keep up with the usually gruff tones of the vocalist.
Some of the songs are quite upbeat while others take a slower, more maudlin route. I find I slightly prefer the latter, although the former is almost as good. Songs like Christ Betrayed have the best of both worlds, making this track one of my favourites.
The songs are stripped back and simplified; it’s easy for Gothic Metal bands to pile on the keyboards and other sounds/effects for quite an ostentatious sound, but Tor Marrock have gone for a basic and raw sound, (relatively speaking), making the most of the standard instruments to colour their emotive palette.
Tor Marrock are doing something a bit different with their take on Metal and this relatively short album, (36 minutes), is an individual and charismatic take on the genre.
The 69 Eyes are from Finland and play Gothic Rock.
This is a pretty epic Best Of album, spanning 28 tracks across 25 years. Most bands will never be that prolific.
I haven’t actually heard The 69 Eyes before but they’re certainly a band I’ve been aware of.
As is the case with Best Of albums like this it’s essentially a greatest hits package, and the quality of the songs reflect this.
It shows a remarkable consistency over the band’s long career. Times, style and fortunes may shift and change, but a good song is a good song regardless.
These are catchy, memorable, Gothic-infused Rock songs with personality and choruses aplenty.
The singer has that kind of deep, charismatic voice that is essential for this kind of music and it’s easy to see why he has captivated so many hearts over the decades with his vocal performance.
There is a lot of music on this release, almost 2 hours in total. But even given the constraints of the genre there’s a decent amount of variety here, with everything from up-tempo rockers, moody slower songs and outright ballads getting a chance to shine. The band have suffered no shortage of inspiration over the years, that’s apparent.
From my own point of reference, they combine elements of HIM, Ashbury Heights, Mono Inc., Paradise Lost, Tiamat, Type O Negative, Moonspell and Sentenced; although I’m well aware that it’s probably the other way around in reality.
With such a wealth of riches in one package, if this is your kind of music then it’s hard to go wrong with The Best of Helsinki Vampires.
I’m sold. Sign me up.
Wonderbox Metal 