
A while ago, I subscribed to a mailing list on Merrian-Webster. It's a website about the English language. Since I subscribed, I receive an email with "the word of the day". For me as a writer it's good to learn new words once in a while. Today, that word was "plangent: having a loud reverberating sound.
Oh, the coincidence.
Towards Atlantis Lights is an international doom metal band, consisting of Ivan Zara (guitars), Ivano Olivieri (drums, percussion), Kostas Panagiotou (vocals, keyboards) and Riccardo Veronese (bass). You might know these names from bands like Pantheist, Aphonic Threnody and Void of Silence. The word "plangent" is extremely well suited for their sound, which is an epic blend of funeral, atmospheric and death doom.
The album contains four tracks, beginning with the massive, thirty minutes lasting epos 'The Bunker Of Life'. Everything you would expect is right here: the crushing riffs, the grieving atmosphere, the clean vocals, the grunts and the methodical drums. It all culminates into this majestic tale of sheer doom. Fans of Shape Of Despair, Mournful Congregation and Evoken will probably already know what do to: pre-order the hell of this thing.
But wait, there is more. The two shorter tracks for example, 'Babylon's Hanging Gardens' and 'Greeting Mausolus' Tomb'. Yes, for funeral doom, four and six minutes are short but that doesn't mean they lack in power. On the contrary. I think 'Babylon's Hanging Gardens' is my favorite here, but that's a tough choice to make. It could also be the ever expanding 'Alexandria's Library' which clocks off at sixteen minutes.
Oh well, even though I despise that "supergroup" tag, I have to admit that this is the culmination of pure doom metal talent. If you are into funeral doom, you really do not want to miss out on this one. It's slow, it's melancholic and depressive as hell. For doomers like me there is little better to be found on this bleak and disconsolate planet. Hurray!
Serge