doom / black metal

Hah, you thought I was done throwing festering doom metal albums on this website, did you? Well, hell no, there is (at least) on more epic piece of doom I want you to check out. It's not a long one but definitely long enough to pound you into a coma. With four fearsome blackened doom metal tracks, Polish horde Loathfinder delivered something immersive and heavy, something the doom metal scene needs today.

Why does the scene need this ep? Well, Loathfinder is one of those bands who seem to look back to the early days of death doom, or doom death by adding deep growling vocals to thick riffs and pounding drums. On the other hand, the band drags in the screaming vocals of black metal and the atmosphere approach of the current post-scene.It's not overly complex but immensely captivating.

I'm sure that a lot of doom fans will start banging their heads slowly when they play these four epic tracks. Closer and title track 'The Great Tired Ones' is my personal favorite, closely followed by 'Feast On My Entrails' but I'm quite positive that all four of these tunes will often pop up in my doomed playlist. My advice? Well, obviously I recommend this piece of work to all you doomers out there. You know you want this...


​Serge

doom / death metal / sludge

A putrid cesspool of filth, misery and misanthropy, pustulating, sickening and insurmountable, that is probably one of the best compliments I can give this album by American doom mongrels Drug Honkey. And believe me, that is an actual compliment. This album is a monstrosity, in the best possible way, obviously. If you're into slow, death metal infused doom, you should look no further as you have found the holy grail of deranged musical insanity. Hurray.

The songs on this album represent an hallucinogenic nightmare. They're slow, sluggish, like a thick layer of tar weighing on your very soul and oozing out of your speakers. Then there are the vocals, or better, the intense and harsh screams of a madman. They grab you by the throat, clawing through your skin and onto your larynx until you suffocate. The massive axes of the drums eventually finish the job with sheer precision.

I can easily say that this album is a stunning piece of doom metal but that would be an understatement. I mean, I love doom. I'm not always fond of its little brother, sludge metal, but what Drug Honkey delivered effortlessly thrashes most of the competition. Doom fans of all ages should make sure that this album is a part of their collection. I wouldn't be surprised if somewhere in the near future, this one stands next to the absolute genre classics.

Serge

doom / sludge

Right, since we're at it, let's throw some more depressive slow music into the mix. This time, I picked something so thick, so sluggish and so intense that it almost resembles quicksand. Once the music has captured you, there is no way out. You can struggle but Dwaal keeps pulling you down into their doomed spiral. Post sludge doomers of all ages should start paying attention now, because this might be one of their favorites in 2017.

But first things first.  Dwaal is a quintet from Oslo, Norway. 'Darben' is their debut ep, a 12" containing two long and conscience pulverizing songs, lasting nineteen and twelve minutes respectively. In those thirty something minutes, Dwaal drags you along soothing post rock/metal passages as well as pounding sludge doom hammerings. Resistance is useless since the music is so immersive that you will happily surrender.

In all, this ep is a solid business card for these Norwegians and I truly hope that it will be picked up by bookers allover Europe. With a massive and intense sound like this, there is no doubt that Dwaal will deliver a bunch of eargasms and perhaps the occasional collapsed lung. My advice? Buy this thing, play it loud and the world being blown away by Dwaal. I need a cigarette now...


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post rock / doom

What a dreadful day it is today. Grey skies, drizzling rain and cold wind fill the city. Even the birds are quiet, sitting on a branch and waiting for the sun to come out. Today is a perfect day to stay inside, drink a hot cup of coffee and enjoy some good music. In my world, the latter is easy. I just have to pick something out of the gigantic pile of albums to be reviewed, download the thing and shove it into my media player. In the case of this particular album, you can do pretty much the same but you will have to pay five euros for it. I'd suggest you do that, especially if you're a fan of heavy and immersive post rock.

The Sky Is is a band from Poland, formed in 2011. In 2012 they released a first three track, only now followed by this new effort. 'Télépathie' contains five tracks and clocks off at a bit under thirty minutes. In thier biography, they mentioned that they support Russian Circles in Warsaw and by sheer coincidence, that is the first band I thought about when I started listening to 'Entangled' and 'Kudzu'. Much like Russian Circles, The Sky Is comes up with immersive, riff-based post rock and post metal, flavored with hints of doom and stoner rock.

There are two other bands that come to mind too. The outstanding and captivating bass play reminds me of Australian colleagues Meniscus. Some aspects of the music come quite close to Tool as well. Then, there are the thick, led heavy doom metal riffs, Sabbathian if you will. Halfway through 'Depths' I found myself banging my head, slowly but still, heavy stuff. I don't often headbang to post-rock/metal but when I do, you can be damn sure that there's a highly talented band playing.

So yes, I think The Sky Is is a pretty talented band. They certainly succeeded in delivering an impressive and well varied album, even though it might be a bit too short. In that case, just play it twice in a row like I am doing at the moment. This one deserves your attention and perhaps that of certain festival bookers too. I'd like to see this live on day but for now, let's all enjoy 'Télépathie', a damn fine post-whatever album...


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funeral doom

From delightful post rock we dive into the dark, depressive world of funeral doom, again with an act I'm happy to hear again. Russian one-man funeral doom act Funeral Tears returns with his third full length. This act by Nikolay Seredov (leader of bands like Стахановцы [Stakhanovite] and Taiga) has pleasantly surprised me in the past, not only because this is one of my favorite genres, but also because Funeral Tears throws a lot of melody in his otherwise led-heavy music.

As per usual, the six tracks on this album are enormous anthems, mostly driving on almost tangible drones and riffs. These come with torpid drums and deep, guttural growls, plus the occasional blackened scream. Opener 'Close My Eyes' is already a brilliant anthem, outstanding in atmosphere, intensity and melody, a bit like Shape Of Despair maybe, or any of those awe inspiring funeral doom bands.

You know. I could have just wrote down the words "funeral doom" and publish this review. If you are a fan of this kind of music, this album is an absolute must-have. There is no doubt about that. Everything to make it a prime example of this style is present on 'Beyond The Horizon'. But it is even more than that. I can easily imagine post rock and post-black metal fans skipping over to this kind of stuff. 

My favorite song here is 'Breathe', which somehow blend funeral doom with the new wave sound of bands like The Cure. I like that shoegazing guitar lick and I'm very sure I will not be the only one. So yeah, this is another highly recommended doom metal album and a solid reference towards the slowest of metal styles. Excellent job, and now I hope that this act will start touring, that would be bloody awesome...


​Serge

doom / heavy metal

Follow The Grain is an album released on April 9, by renowned underground German musician better known by the alias of Morphinist. Though mostly known by his releases on the genres of traditional and atmospheric black metal, Follow The Grain witnesses the musician experimenting with doom and heavy metal, in a very unexpected, but interesting experimental mood. Forty one minutes long, the record has only three very long tracks (which is somewhat a remarkable feature of his): the eponymous Follow The Grain, The Demons Of Doubt and Battle Wounds. With amazingly solid and vociferous, but at the same time soberly clean guitar lines, Follow The Grain from the beginning reveals itself to be a great and marvelously crafted instrumental album. With lucid, but very imponderable harmonies, perfectly delineated at the height of severe rhythmic ordinances, Follow The Grain encounters Morphinist in his best creative shape, brilliantly displaying the vigor of his colossal energies in a style not familiar to his audience. Nonetheless, the final result couldn’t have been more formidably amazing. 

Underlying the visionary cosmic strength of serene melodies, these three tracks effusively consolidate the sonorous ritual of a sentimental intensity that deeply elevates its harmonies into an imaginary field of astounding deliverance. With exceedingly factual poetical elements that acts at the direct interface of the songs, the extraordinary sensible intonations that plays with a more spiritual level of intricacy reveals a genuinely effective musical structure, whose technique is perfectly correlated with the sensitive ordeal that joyfully precipitates the consistency of the sound into an imaginary cosmogony that dreams abundantly in the unpredictable fields of mind expectations.

With a surreal predicament of a linear embodiment of devotional artistry, Follow The Grain is simply a tremendously magnificent album, with the most audaciously ferocious and imponderably creative guitar lines that you will ever hear in your life. Preciously beautiful, inherently natural and vehemently undertaking a wonderful sonorous journey of exhilarating rapture, the three tracks of Follow The Grain are simply formidably arranged masterpieces, that will elevate your soul to different standards of existence. 

With no faults to be pointed out whatsoever, this is an album for a lifetime. A majestically monumental state of the art work – one of the best and most fantastically exceptional guitar driven albums ever to be conceived –, whose sagaciously demanding imperative beauty has created sonorous galaxies of perceived excitement and graceful healing, Follow The Grain is an unusual move for Morphinist, that once more has proved why he is one of the greatest and most versatile musicians in the contemporary underground scene. 



Wagner

drone, doom, stoner rock

Across the River of Time is an album by drone/ doom/ stoner German duo Father Sky Mother Earth, released on April 2.  Thirty seven minutes long, the record has only two tracks:  The Return of Alhazred and the eponymous Across the River of Time. Primarily atmospheric in nature, with an intensely sinister layout of dense expectations, the sonorous style of Father Sky Mother Earth is thoroughly lenient, but distinctly voracious as well. As strange as it seems, despite little rhythmic variations and the general uniformity of the sound, monotony and exasperation are out of the equation here: their style is promising, enduring, solid and consistent, and the anguish provoked and emancipated by the afflictive expectancy generated by the agonizing behavior whimsically dilapidated by their sound is not only purposefully well designed, but majestically monumental as well.

The nature of their music is profoundly ambivalent, and unmistakably pragmatic. Not only enabling, but sustaining an irrevocable atmosphere that produces anguish and anxiety in the general syncope of its soundscape, the two tracks present on this album legitimately captures within the axis of its own interior universe an essentially hostile and dense definition of dying disillusion. The affinity expressed in the deeply fugacious ordeal of the music has an imponderable strength over the listener, and you feel magically bound to the intense and dubious atmospheric nature of the work.     

An interesting record – almost esoteric in the rapture contrivances of its anatomy – that sensibly replicates in the nature of its own purpose the exhilaration of a personal universe undefined by the characteristics of a singular crisis, Across the River of Time is an album with high probabilities to impress any audience. The intense power that emanates from its insidious, perfidious, densely vast, exponentially rude and ecstatic – but at the same time beautiful – melodies makes this record a highlight of the genre. The subtle intrusive behavior of the music deeply contrasts with its capacity to insert into the innermost molecules of the melodies a calm transient pattern of anxious expectation, that revolves around a corner that ostensibly ignores its correlation with an imaginary parallel universe of dilacerating nothingness.  

A dense, pervasive, somber and intricate album, Across the River of Time is a sinister, but overwhelming drone/ doom/ ambient record, that expands in the discreet side of its nature the nefarious audacity of its intentions. True to the sober and consistent vitality of the work, Father Sky Mother Earth certainly has created one of the most wonderful, tense, abrasive and fiercely despondent masterpieces ever conceived in the history of the genre. 


Wagner

avant garde / metal

Arisen is an album by Hungarian avant-garde metal project Hant, released on April 4. Forty one minutes long, the album has eight tracks: Desolate, Evolution of Minds, Of Longing and Lust, Black Lake, Arisen, Beyond the Astral Doors, Summoning and Mad World (a beautiful instrumental cover version of the notorious Tears for Fears song [and, in my opinion, the best track on this record]). With an incisive work competently built on guitars, Arisen is an album with interesting shapes and nuances. With generally calmer melodies, the harmonies are conceived in an anxious and afflictive layer of lancinating and acute atmospheric anguish. Somewhat interesting, there is a virtuous degree of skilled technical proficiency holding the musical structure of the work. Unfortunately, since the harmonies are mostly slow all the way through, and the songs are generally very long, a tedious, nefarious and exasperating sense of monotony overcomes the listener, and the album eventually becomes more of a boring task than an actual pleasure.

Nevertheless, there are distinct elements, as well as intriguing passages, in some tracks along the way. With minimalist and neoclassical tendencies, Arisen has charming peculiarities, and the sensational sonorous dilapidations that ostensibly arise in the outer limits of the conclusively splendid exterior layers of the songs reveal, quite surprisingly, a modest, but sagacious level of audacity, originality and creativity, well-worked and majorly conceived in the expansive fields of rhythmic dissonances discreetly dispersed throughout the album. 

Although Arisen can’t be qualified as a majestic record – and you will hardly be surprised while listening to it – this album has, indeed, several qualities. The hazard, dilacerating and meticulous guitar lines undoubtedly are the main force behind the work, and create all the major elements that consecrate the overall musical atmosphere. Taking that away, you don’t have too much components to appreciate on the album, although some harmonies are fulfilled by a lonely, restless, reflexive and poetic appeal. Evidently, if you like slow, melodic, melancholic guitar driven rock’n’roll with avant-garde elements, then Arisen is an album that you should listen. 
     
As far as my personal evaluation goes, Arisen is a good album, but is incapable of going beyond that. Too much accommodated in a common concept, with an ostensibly exacerbated uniformity, with little rhythmic variations, the overall sound, in the end, reclaims an ordinary and inefficient final product, that will probably appeal more to guitar players and guitar students in general.     


Wagner

doom metal

A few days ago, my wife and I were talking about the evolution of some of the bands I have been reviewing over the years. Quite often, a band seems to select a certain genre to play, write a first album, do a bunch of gigs, go back into the studio to write new songs. Throughout those albums, you can sometimes notice the evolution from a beginning band to a well-attuned group that has learned a lot about making music. You can hear confidence, passion and experience.

Yesterday, I finally decided to take the new Pallbearer album for a spin, and guess what, I noticed those exact same things. It surprised me too, because for all I knew, Pallbearer was already at that point where confidence, passion and experience were present in the music. I have been a Pallbearer fan for several years. In my humble opinion, they are one of the best doom metal bands today. So yes, I was surprised to see that even a seasoned act like Pallbearer seems to evolve their style. 

Of course, that is not a bad thing, on the very contrary. Without further ado, I can honestly say that 'Heartless' is a breathtaking album, progressive doom rock at a very high level. I hear influences from King Crimson, Pink Floyd, Anathema, My Dying Bride and Black Sabbath, but most of all, I hear Pallbearer give the very best of themselves. Opener 'I Saw The End' is a very strong song, one that immediately made me like the whole album.

'Thorns' is a first highlight, an epic piece of doom rock which takes me back to the nineties and the seventies at the same time. 'Lie Of Survival' is a long, progressive rock song with a gloomy edge, which even brings some gothic rock acts to mind, be it the slow, depressive ones. I really love the guitar play on this one, along with the introvert, emotional vocals. And suddenly I think, "what would happen if Pallbearer and Depeche Mode worked together". But nevermind that.

'Dancing In Madness' is another highlight, and dare I say "a masterpiece"? This song only proves what I have been babbling about in the first two paragraphs: confidence, passion and experience. With plenty of emotion and tonnes of musical craftsmanship, this is undoubtedly one of the best songs Pallbearer have ever written. If Pink FLoyd were a metal band, this would have been their sound.

Now, for the doom fans among us, don't worry. Besides progressive beauty, there a still plenty of doom loaded riffs to slowly bang your head to. 'Cruel Road' and title track 'Heartless' will easily fulfill your metallic needs. The closer is one for you to discover for yourself, but rest assured, I will definitely be worth the effort, just like the rest of the album. So yep, this one comes highly recommended. It's probably one of the most mature metal albums in history...


​Serge

shoegaze / drone / doom

I've said it before and I'll say it again: the world of one-man bands is an intriguing one. Solo acts have been fascinating me for years. Many of them come up with dark, enigmatic music, exploring their deepest emotions, fears and ennui with all kinds of instruments. Of course, loopers, samplers and software make it possible for people to work alone but still, doing it all on your own is quite an achievement, especially when the result is a perplexing piece of work.

Planning For Burial is such a one-man project, formed by Thom Wasluck. His music is slow, harsh, emotive and gloomy. 'Below the House' is an introvert but bombastic piece of work, loaded with influences from shoegaze, doom metal, nineties dark rock, ambient and drone. It is an album that comes from deep within the artist and it reaches out to all those who are into sonic darkness.

Opener 'Whiskey and Wine' first comes up with the droning beauty we know are respect bands like Nadja and Jesu for. However, soon the blackened sludge metal vocals come in, making the whole thing even harsher than it is. Here, Deafheaven comes to mind but they soon disappear when the following songs show different vocals, clean ones. On 'Somewhere In The Evening' another side is shown, the one that reminds me of  a band like Anathema.

To show his know-how in the noise and dark ambient scene, Planning For Burial threw the dark track 'Past Lives' on this album. Right before that 'Warmth Of You' drags in influences from dark rock and new wave bands, like Killing Joke meets A Place To Bury Strangers. '(something)' is soothing ambient tune, serving as an intro for the stunning tandem 'Dull Knife pt. I & 2'. Here, like in the opener, the noise elements seem to return. If Skullflower would make a shoegaze album, it would probably sound something like this.

In all, this is another one of those albums that throw their listeners into a whirlpool of drones, despair, depression and solitude and that's perfectly fine by me. If you are one of those people who prefer slow music which is loaded with sentiment, you need this album. On a medium volume, it's an enjoyable alternative rock album. On high level it's a massive blast of drones, drums and doom. So it's perfectly suited for every situation...


Serge

stoner / doom / death metal

I have to admit, the death metal scene doesn't thrill me as much as it used to. There was a time when I devoured albums by Entombed, Dismember, Death, Amorphis and so on. Yet, in recent years, the genre seems to slip through my fingers. At first, I thought that that was age related. I'm just getting older and thus more interested in slow, calmer music. Yet, that doesn't seem to be the cause of my growing disinterest in the genre. The main problem seems to be a lack of originality. Many bands seem to fear trying new things, which results in uniformity. 

Enter Finnish quartet Altar Of Betelgeuze and their green smoke filled approach to the genre. Their new album 'Among The Ruins' is saving the genre for me, blending the harsh and abrasive nature of death metal with the monolithic riff capacity of doom and stoner rock. As if that is not varied enough, they throw in some clean vocals and even some psychedelic guitar solos. It's not often that bands like Black Sabbath & Electric Wizard come to mind while listening to a death metal album, but it sure is pretty damn bloody awesome.

Although opener 'The Offering' is a strong and immersive piece of music, follower 'Sledge Of Stones' is an absolute masterpiece. Somehow, Altar Of Betelgeuze managed to add the groove of bands like Entombed and Dismember to the thick sound of the bands I mentioned in the previous paragraph. At some point even Queens Of The Stone Age come to mind, along with some of their stoner rock colleagues. 'New Dawn' is another favorite, but more a vintage doom metal track than a death metal tune.

Another absolute highlight its 'Absence Of Light', a slow but brutal steamroller of a song, one that will have you on your knees in no time. There is a tiny bit Amorphis in here, enhanced with all of the above. Obviously, the majority of metal fans will classify this album as doom metal and I can't disagree with that. The overall tempo is quite slow. The riffs are almost touchable. The clean vocals remind me of the early days of the doom genre.

Basically, perhaps you can simplify classification by saying that this is "Conan with grunts" but that would be too easy. Fact remains that this is a well-written, well-thought-out and original album that definitely deserves a spot in your collection. So who to recommend it to? Well, doom fans of course. They will adore this thing, no doubt about that. Death metal fans will have to open their mind a bit, but once bitten, Altar Of Betelgeuze could easily become your favorites.


Serge
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funeral doom

Years ago, I discovered the immense 'Missing', a song from Belgian funeral doom act Until Death Overtakes Me. Back then, I didn't know anything about that genre. For me, at that moment, doom metal was the stuff the My Dying Bride, Anathema and Tiamat did. However, 'Missing' immediately became one of my favorite anthems and I started grabbing everything I could get from Until Death Overtakes Me. Then, the project seemingly became silent, until now apparently.

Suddenly, this album appeared in my inbox, something I could have never expected. Not that I minded, on the very contrary. I quickly downloaded it, fed it to my media machine and allowed myself to bask in the thick, torpid doom that this act produces so well. 'AnteMortem' brings four tracks, two of them being massive funeral doom anthems, lasting over twenty minutes while the other two take up about ten. 

The key ingredients are all here. Atmospheric keyboards, sluggish guitars and huge ambient passages. Fans of acts like Evoken, Shape Of Despair and Esoteric will easily embrace this album. Opener 'Before' is - in my opinion - even better than 'Missing'. In fact, the whole album shows an artist that managed to grow, improve and thrive in a genre with strict boundaries. Of course, this one comes highly recommended. 2017 is definitely going to be a Belgian year!!!


​Serge

drone / ambient / jazz / krautrock

drone / krautrock / experimental

singer-songwriter

bandcamp

doom / dark ambient

metal / metalcore

thrash metal / hardcore

doom / sludge

metal / metalcore 

doom / sludge / black metal

doom

sludge / doom

Serge

post rock / doom

Oh yeah, here comes another early candidate for my best of 2017 list. I know, there are still loads and loads of albums to be released but this is an album that combines three of my favorite things in music. One, it is completely instrumental. Two, it is dark and atmospheric. Three, it is slow and immersive. So yes, instrumental post rock, nudging towards doom metal and containing flashes of industrial. Believe me, I'm sold. Hell, I was sold even before I actually listened to this album and that doesn't often happen.

First things first. The Arabic word '​آكتئاب' translates as 'depression, melancholy'. Google Translate says we should pronounce it as 'akitiaab'. For the record, we're not dealing with a band from Arabia or anywhere in the Middle-East for that matter. Ddent hails from Paris, France and initially started out as a two-man band. Today, the band consists of four members and, judging to the music on this album, they can convert 'آكتئاب' into music like nobody else can. Or maybe a few other bands....

Yet, as brilliant as this album really is, I find it hard to write about it. Like I said in the opening paragraph, I was sold when I read the words "instrumental", "post-rock" and "doom". I think every fan of these three things can easily trust Ddent to deliver the eargasms we all crave so much. The music is slow, intense, massive. I'm reminded of bands like Russian Circles, Monkey3, Meniscus, A Place to Bury Strangers, A Swarm Of The Sun, Godspeed! You Black Emperor, Pelican, Cult Of Luna... See, that's how good this band actually is.

I'm also not going to mention titles or certain passages in certain songs. Why? Because this album doesn't need to be divided into parts. As far as I'm concerned, this is a sonic trance that lasts for almost an hour, a trance in which you can explore the deepest and darkest caverns of your inner-being and thus the state of our society as we know it. You can almost surf on those distorted, droning guitars, guided by the methodical drums and lulled by these massive soundscapes.

Oh well, let's just face it. The world of post-rock and doom metal will have to its very best to produce something as exciting and captivating as 'آكتئاب'. I can only recommend this gem to all fans of slow, immersive and atmospheric music, whether it is drone, doom, shoegaze, post-rock, post-metal or even dark ambient. Apart from the intense darkness and the depressing feeling in the air, I think 2017 is going to be an awesome year for music...


​Serge

progressive metal

dark ambient

post rock

shoegaze / psychedelic

symphonic doom

grindcore

alternative / metal

dark ambient

indie rock / pop rock

punk rock

rock / blues

funeral doom / black metal

noise / drone / spoken word

heavy metal

death metal / black metal

Serge

doom / industrial

The first month is not over yet and one thing is already starting to become clear. 2017 will color black, yellow and red (mostly black). There is no denying that Belgian bands are about to dominate the musical landscape and, as a result, plenty of end-year lists in December. Bathsheba and Wiegedood already set the standard in their respective genres and now Emptiness is aiming for the absolute top in whatever genre it is they play these days.

That being said, I have no idea how to correctly describe the music on this stunning full-length. The follow up to their 2014 album 'Nothing But The Whole' simply shatters every genre restriction you can think of, eventually resulting in something between Anathema, Godflesh and Massive Attack. I know, those are miles away from each other, but somehow Emptiness managed to throw these and other influences into something that actually deserves the term "unique".

It opens with the awesome track 'Meat Heart', a dark metal tune with plenty of keyboards and soundscapes but still damn catchy and immersive. I really dig the vocals here, along of course with the pitch black atmosphere. The vocals seem to come directly from a haunting horror movie, which adds a lot to whole concept. 'It Might Be' follows a similar path, but on the same time adds some elements from the whole post-black metal scene.

With the addition of Ashtoreth's Peter to the line-up, Emptiness brought in someone who know his way around drones, noise and soundscapes, something you can clearly hear on this album. 'You Skin Won't Hide You' perfectly illustrates that. This is one of my favorite tracks here, somewhat reminding me of Nadja covering The Cure and using these awesome dark grunts over it. Yep, apart from everything I already mentioned, this album also breathes shoegaze-galore.

So yes, in a way this album contains plenty of variation but at the same time it showcases a coherent and conceptual sound. Even the dark jazz influenced post-doom track 'Digging In The Sky' fits perfectly in this concept, even though this song issues an atmosphere of increscent madness rather than the pitch black darkness in the other tracks. And if all that is not enough, 'Ever' comes up with synthpop meets gothic death metal and still sounds convincing.

After listening to the album a few times, the phrase "I hope this is Emptiness' 'Wildhoney'" appeared in my head. With that, I was thinking about the conceptual feel, the lower tempo and the domination of atmosphere over aggression but also about simply breaking through. With this album, Emptiness added an absolute blast and certainly a landmark in their career. Obviously, this comes highly recommended for every fan of dark metal or "angst rock".


​Serge

stoner rock / doom

Children of the Haze is an album released on January 16, by Polish Stoner Rock group Dopelord. With six tracks – Navigator, Scum Priest, Children of the Haze, Skulls and Candles, Dead Inside (I&II) and Reptile Sun – the album is a classic Stoner album: with slow rhythms, viciously hostile guitar lines, expressively strong sonorous walls and a corrosive pattern of harmonies, the record manages to be very good. Although there is nothing new here, you definitely manage to have a very cool time with Children of the Haze. Impersonating the best qualities of the genre in a very expressive and solid definition, Dopelord does a great job on this album, and from the beginning it becomes very evidently why they are so good.

With pervasive, but subtlety aggressive guitar lines, the songs are well written, elaborated in a solid conjuncture, that highlights the best expressions of the genre. Although eventually you may get resented of a little monotony, Children of the Haze sustains itself very well all the way through, being way better – I mean, really above the top – than the vast majority of other records released on the genre.

Evidently, the guitar lines are what the record has at its best, although the vocals are exceedingly cool, in a very categorical and proverbial sphere of sound. The instrumental passages are mostly surreal, and majorly abundant. The instruments converge and align with one another very well, and technically, they are undoubtedly skilled. The production values also sound professional, and everything that you hear on this record certainly goes beyond the ordinary standards. 

Although I haven’t found this album to be superbly incredible, it has more merits than derogatory elements. The only lamentable things here are some tedious passages – they are there, but are very little – some sonorous uniformity and a “common ground” approach to the genre. Nonetheless, there are interesting melodies, and a demanding originality, that, although shy sometimes, presents itself astonishingly. They are powerful, delusional and whimsical, and you can feel their sound touching your skin.

Although I really like Stoner Rock, it’s not one of my favorite genres. But Dopelord are definitely miles away in an evolutionary and creative stance, if compared to a lot of their contemporaries, and they have an astoundingly surprising potential. Undeniably, they greatly represent Stoner Rock, and have the talent to become one of the main exponents of the genre.        


Wagner

shoegaze / dreampop

stoner rock

electronic / ambient

Avian

post rock

black metal / hardcore

heavy jazz / noise rock

alternative rock

doom metal

heavy metal

power metal / heavy metal

hardcore / progressive

symphonic meal / gothic meal

techno

alternative / singer-songwriter

death metal / thrash metal

Serge

doom / sludge

We're not done dooming yet (as if we're ever!!!) so we'll just continue to blast some slow, torpid metal through our speakers like a flow of mud over our consciousness. Although, this one is somewhat different from the funeral doom album I reviewed earlier. This one nudges to sludge metal and carries a hint of psychedelic music as well, which obviously makes the whole thing a bit more varied and aggressive.

But what would you expect from a band composed of members of several black/doom, power grind and psychedelic bands? Of course this multitude of influences has leaked into their sound, much to my delight too. It provides plenty of variation, not only musically but also as far as vocals are concerned. With both sludge screams and deep, guttural growls over the thick riffs, Ketch certainly convinces.

The album opens with 'Fertile Rites by Sacrifice', vintage sludge metal song but also one that carefully flirts with dark jazz, another one of my favorites. Yet, as the distortion, the hammering drums and the vocals come in, we're riding on waves of doom for about an hour or so. Further down the record Ketch guides us along funeral doom, post-metal and even flashes of death metal, the latter beautifully represented in the riffing in 'En Nomine Eius'.

'Estranged' is the strange breather before Ketch kicks off the second part of the album with my absolute favorite, the massive 'Detached and Conquered'. This is another one of those hypnotizing beatdowns that only sludge metal bands can deliver and in doing that, these Americans absolutely convince. I can easily see hordes of fans in front of the stage, sluggishly banging their heads to these waves of sludge hammers.

So yes, this is an excellent, well-varied and highly immersive piece of sludge doom, one every fan of the genre should get his hands on. It's a long album too, with ten songs. In all lasting for a bit over an hour. The leel of musicianship is high, actually even higher than most other bands in this genre. So what are you waiting for, buy this thing and allow it to hammer you into a piece of pulp. You know you want it...


​Serge

funeral doom

Aah, doom metal, the odd man in the world of extreme music and by far my favorite too. That is, until I discovered funeral doom, an even slower and darker version. I spent countless of hours listening to Evoken, Until Death Overtakes Me and Pantheist. And we all know that "countless of hours of funeral doom" equals about seven songs or so. Just kidding, I devoured them all and apparently, I'm not the only one.

Val, the person behind this German funeral doom project, started Frowing in 2011. He was inspired by the exact bands I mentioned above. 2014 saw his first substantial release, which is now followed by another brilliant piece of music. For this, he got some help from vocalists Stanislav Govorukha (Suffer Yourself) and Hekjal (Ad Cinerem). In short, 'Extinct' is a stunning testament of depression, fear and despair. 

In a way, this is an album with all the right ingredients to make it a classic funeral doom album, nothing more, nothing less. The tempo is extremely slow. The guitars and drums create an immersive and hypnotizing sound on which the deep growls thrive. The songs are long, with 'Buried Deep' lasting over twenty minutes. 'Frédéric Chopin's Marche Funèbre' is the shortest one, clocking off at about six minutes.

That being said, no, this album doesn't differ that much from the ones by Shape Of Despair, Esoteric and all the others but that doesn't matter one little bit. I'm absolutely sure that fans of the genre cvan easily appreciate the tormented sound of 'Encumbered by Vermin' or the brilliant 'Veiled In Fog', each of them being a vintage funeral doom track. Besides, the whole thing carries that cold, eerie atmosphere that we all adore so much.

So take it from me, if there is one album that funeral doom fans will love this year, or if there is one band in this genre to be discovered, it might as well be this one. You simply can't go wrong with Frowning. This one is going right into my day-to-day playlist and I'm sure it'll guarantee another countles of hours of pure misery and damnation, just the way we doomers like it...


​Serge