To Fall, Or Not To Fall? That Is The Question.

I'm with you here Vinny, I find The 3rd and Mortal to be a bit of a drag to be honest.

Esoteric - Epistemological Despondency (1994)

Esoteric as a word is defined as being 'intended for or likely to be understood by only a small number of people with specialised knowledge or interest' which is absolutely applicable to this monstrosity of a record. I do not think that I am an expert in funeral doom by any stretch of the imagination but the content I found on the six tracks present on this debut release is anything but confined to just one sub-genre of music. There is no doubt (even without reading the liner notes that Ben refers to in his review) that this was a record for an exclusive club and that you would not necessarily know whether you were in that club or not until you started listening to the record.

I like my music as extreme as the next cave-dwelling Metal Academy scribe but there are moments on Epistemological Despondency were even I begin to struggle. It may be the less than successful deployment of the death metal elements or the horrific noise intrusions and oddly muffled (maybe too down tuned) instruments - or in fact all of the above - but something is definitely off for me here. There are not a lot of moving parts I sense, yet they some how bash into one another far too much like an extra-large dodgem set up at a fair with only 6 cars on it. Logically they have a bigger area to move around in yet somehow they still continue to bump into one another.

It could be that I have come to this record too late and that the boundaries of acceptable extremity in my music have been stretched enough already at my age for me to be able to judge this record appropriately without the context of what it was trying to do in 1994. Whether I am 18 or 47 though I do not think that Epistemological Despondency is for me. There is too much to get through, being delivered by sparse component parts for me to want to get behind the cluttered arrangements and oppressive presentation to be bothered to understand what it actually wants to say about justified belief or opinion (if we take the album title by its intended definition of course).

3/5

Winter - Into Darkness (1990)

In my book, 1990 was a sterling year for releases. Just take a look in the Releases section on the site folks and tell me otherwise amigos! It was one of the key formative years of discovery for me in metal and one that is close to my heart as a result. Now, although not on any "top" release list of mine for the year, I am already aware of the existence of Winter and their classic debut album Into Darkness having read much love for it and venturing into numerous listens over the years. The fact is, not having been that into most of the doom metal world and associated sub-genres, I hadn't really paid it that much attention until having to revisit for The Fallen clan challenge I am undertaking.

Having heard it several times in recent weeks I would describe it as a very functional album. Backhanded compliment though that may be it is most certainly true to my ears at least. I don't recall an album that marries the sum of its parts so well in all honesty. Servants of the Warsmen for example is so simplistic yet effective that it actually makes me smile (not the intention of the record - I know!) with its almost arrogant presentation. At the same time, the album overall is a (deliberately) monotonous affair that uses repetition extensively. This does not get boring at any point since the idea is to create an atmosphere and inhabit that dank space for the entre 46 minutes of the album run time.

My "functional" comment therefore is aimed as nothing but praise, certainly when we add the context of the timing of this record (there wasn't much of anything like this out there at the time). To create such an immersive experience with such a stripped back and down-tuned set of parts is truly interesting to me. It is almost an effortless record to listen to because it does the job it intends to do so well. As if opening up the album with an instrumental track is not bold enough a move, we get another one in the middle of the album which kicks off the whole tortuously slow second half of the record.

I would describe Winter's one and only full-length as "nonchalant" in delivery, designed to baffle by the sheer weight of the basic arrangements alone. But the bafflement is dulled by the slow doping your brain gets track after track as Into Darkness washes over you. One of the most relaxing listening experiences of my Fallen clan journey so far.

4/5

Thergothon - Stream From the Heavens (1994)

Exploring early funeral doom is fast becoming my favourite way to relax. It really is testimony to the knowledge of the creator of this clan challenge (The Fallen: Doom Metal - The Early Days) as to how good an introduction to the clan this list of releases is. Until recently I had only really listened to Bell Witch's Mirror Reaper as my only regular experience of funeral doom. Understanding where the whole sub-genre that influenced that record comes from is a real treat. As with my review of Winter's Into Darkness, I find the sheer simplicity of Thergothon's Stream From the Heavens to be remarkable in the sense of the immersive atmosphere that it creates. Not that Winter's debut was dripping with high production values, but Thergothon's debut sounds like it was recorded in a basement somewhere in their native Finland.

What makes this album more remarkable is that there was only three members who recorded all this. Sharing vocal, keyboard and guitar duties across all three of them (with drums handled solely by Jori Sjöroos), Stream From the Heavens is a real team effort. This is not only dripping in atmosphere folks, it is heavy as fuck as well. It takes the blueprint of Into Darkness and ramps up the weight dramatically. The funeral atmospheres are serviced brilliantly by the almost black metal vocal style that sits alongside those dreary clean vocals (that also have a fair amount of spoken word alongside them). These grim and deathly croaks add a real dimension to this record and are perhaps my favourite part of the whole experience.

I guess my only mystery here is why this album is called Stream From the Heavens when this sounds like it comes up from the opposite direction altogether. Consistently, the record pulls you further and further into the agonisingly slow and dense atmosphere that it creates without making the whole experience feel like it goes on for too long. At a shade under 41 minutes, this album is a perfectly palatable slab of music that never feels like it outstays its welcome. It is bizarre how such fetid sounding vocals and crushing riffs can relax me so much but this album replaces any weight on my shoulders with a much different and more interesting weight I guess.

4.5/5

Skepticism - Stormcrowfleet (1995)

My initial exploration of the early funeral doom albums is coming to an end with Skepticism's debut album from 1995. This near-hour length experience is possibly my favoured to date and I am writing this review have just done a 90 minute walk through the cold and grey countryside near my house and it was the perfect grim accompaniment to my heavy footfalls. With repeated listens over the last few weeks of this album and the other funeral doom releases in this challenge I have come to finally understand the connection I am so easily able to make with this kind of music that appeals to me so much the more I discover of it.

Stormcrowfleet is a weighty offering. It never tries to present itself as being anything else, right from the off its dismal keys and crushing riffs hide none of its monolithic nature. Those slow and deliberate drums alongside those deep, guttural vocals only add to the tortuous pace of the album. I have already on previous funeral doom releases how important repetition is and of course we have that in abundance here again. The fact is that. end to end, Stormcrowfleet is utterly deathly. It creeps at the pace of the ages of time itself, showing now urgency to end its futile progression. In a world where I (like all of us) have my fair share of burdens and weight to carry on my shoulders, albums such as this are a welcome distraction.

The best visualisation of this is a deep silo, chute or vertical tunnel with a huge weight being slowly pushed down it on vast hydraulics. This weight (in this instance Stormcrowfleet) creates pressure that pushes the weight of my woes and worries up and away as a greater mass that needs to occupy the space they constantly reside in. This dispersal of the day to day banality of life is so welcome that I find albums such as this quite cathartic. There is a moment of such a subtle yet emotionally devastating explosion at about two-and-a-half-minutes into By Silent Wings that it genuinely stops me dead in my tracks every time I hear it.

Whilst not perfect, the production job here is better than on the debuts by Winter and Thergothon and this gives this album just enough elevation above those two releases to get it top marks out of the three of them. My best find to date on this journey without a doubt and I am looking forwards to more long walks with this as my soundtrack.

5/5

Bethlehem - Dark Metal (1994)

Having heard the delirious display of Dictus te necare many times before now, the album that comes before it has been quite a turn up for the books by way of comparison. Depending on your view of Bethlehem's sophomore release you will find the vocal performance on their debut effort much more controlled whilst still retaining the ghastly edge that goes into overdrive on the follow up record. Going into Dark Metal I was not expecting a predominantly death doom orientated record. The progression from this death march-paced release to the demented, depressive black metal of Dictus te necare in just two years is more obvious than your may at first think. Musically and often stylistically as well it is certainly structured differently, however Dark Metal is laden with a sense of the futility and despondency that spewed forth with such vitriol on the follow up album.

Feeling much more measured and balanced than its successor, Dark Metal feels more inviting a prospect to listen to. It is well constructed and thoughtfully produced death doom metal in the main that has an undeniable black metal aesthetic to it. This bm influence is undeniably in the vocals of Andreas Classen, however he does have variety in his kit bag to be able to pull off some great death metal vocals also. The latter part of his skillset certainly serves the direction of the album better overall. The riffs are simple yet effective and the drumming is perfectly serviceable if not all that remarkable overall. It is the daunting atmospheres however that really carry the album home. Combining these simple structures with a solid use of pacing really does create some density to proceedings and there is a constant sense of dread throughout Dark Metal.

For me, it takes a bit too long to truly get going and I would argue that for the first three tracks at least, the band are clearly finding their feet. I would say that the latter half of the record therefore is much stronger than the early track listing. Although not searching for an identity as such, the band are definitely unable to settle on a permanent direction at first. From 3rd Nocturnal Prayer onwards however the record is virtually a flawless experience. Colour me impressed though as I had always assumed Bethlehem to be an out and out bm band so their debut release is a neat find.

4/5

Unholy - The Second Ring of Power (1994)

The story of Unholy is one of a band who are honorary members of the "close but no cigar" award based on the biographic detail of their career available online. Make a record, convince yourselves it will sell millions, it doesn't sell millions and so you blame the record company and look for a bigger deal before splitting up anyway. Then, you get back together a couple of years later, make an album, convince yourselves...(etc, etc). The Second Ring of Power was their sophomore album from nearly thirty years ago and it is an album that sort of tracks the up and down nature of their careers.

For a start, it is fair to say that I have heard both better and worse death doom in my time. Unholy certainly knew their influences and were never afraid to get into the agonisingly slow zone when needed. The thing that resonates from the album after a few listens though is the more atmospheric and near gothic tropes that sporadically appear on the record. The guest vocal appearance of Merja Salmela is the main driver behind this sense of the gothic element and when coupled with the funeral keys often makes for a decidedly (un)death doom like experience.

I get the sense that Unholy were almost trying too hard to get into the upper echelons of death doom in the 90s with this record. Whether the gothic element was a conscious effort to sound different (or to sound less Thergothon and more My Dying Bride) I will never know but they lacked the song writing prowess to pull this off in all honesty and so parts of this record sound quite amateurish. Add to this experience the horrendous album closer Serious Personality Disturbance and Deep Anxiety and this album soon finds itself caught in the lower end of my score range. Competent guys but punching way above their weight on this one.

3/5

Pagan Altar - Volume I/Pagan Altar (1982)

Delighted to find a Pagan Altar release in my current clan challenge for The Fallen. Having espoused my love for The Lords of Hypocrisy already on the site, I get to fawn over their debut album now also. As you will see from my other review, I am totally onboard with Terry Jones' vocals to the point where I would say they "make" Pagan Altar who they are really. His vocals, coupled with the superb bluesy riffs of Jones' son, Alan and the Ward-esque drumming of John Mizrahi are the very essence of Pagan Altar.

This album is a thoroughly authentic experience for me to listen to. It requires very little unwrapping as this is not multi-layered by any means and that is why it works so well. This a real plug 'n play type of record. This is not to say that it is simplistic though, as I already mentioned the drumming of Mizrahi reminds me a lot of Bill Ward, dropping in little runs and fills that you do not always pick up at first listen - repeated listens really does reward the listener with this one folks. Again, far from being a dominant force, Trevor Portch's bass is ever-audible throughout the album giving a real completeness to the sound of the record with all members seeming to make as full as possible a contribution.

With an album that is themed on magic and mystical content it is interesting that the instrumental track that sits as the penultimate offering on the record was originally left as an untitled track. The title of Acoustics only appeared once the pressing plant undertook the task of producing CD versions of the album. The band apparently later referred to the track as being named The Dance of the Banshee which certainly seems more in keeping with the rest of the album. Clearly striding with a heavy metal influence throughout, Volume I is a romp of a retrospective jaunt down memory lane for fans of late 70s/early 80s psychedelic rock and heavy metal. Not quite as laden and oppressing as Black Sabbath but still the band's sound held a density and atmosphere that resonates to this day. All hail Pagan Altar! 

4.5/5

Solitude Aeturnus - Into the Depths of Sorrow (1991)

My struggles with Solitude Aeturnus (or more Rob's vocals) have been documented before on Metal Academy, so seeing their debut album crop up on The Fallen challenge hardly filled me with joy in all honesty. I deliberately left it to the end thinking that to some degree the outcome was more or less set that I would be disappointed with the album overall. Epic doom has a bar that was set high by the mighty Candlemass and is often a level that is failed to be lived up to in my experience so I go into most epic doom records with my guard firmly up.

Except, here I soon find myself dropping my dukes, within mere minutes in fact I am sat nodding appreciatively along to Into the Depths of Sorrow before I even know it. My concerns that Rob's vocals are going to be a whiny and whimpering affair are not founded as it turns out, in fact I think he submits a very measured and yet clearly strong performance over the eight tracks on offer. I will not pretend to love all of his work on here (things so go astray badly on closing track, Where Angels Dare to Tread) but in the main this is a much better experience than I was expecting. The album has much more to it than Rob of course. Rivera and Perez are a pair of riff demons and they are the real engine of Into the Depths of Sorrow. There are times when things are not exactly going to my liking in every other aspect of the sound but I still have no beef with the guitar work that is going on. It is more subtle than you would think at first also. They are happy to pick strings when necessary to let other parts of the music take a front seat but then out of nowhere comes a lead, fired like a bullet across the track to take things off in a new direction.

I have a couple of minor criticisms that are enough to keep the album away from the top end of the scoring chart. The drums have an odd sterility to them which half the time I think works well and the other half I feel is just a bit odd sounding. They have presence, absolutely they do, but at the same time they have an almost programmed feel to them which is odd considering that John Covington is sat behind the skins. Also, in parts, I feel the album is too epic for its own good. I mean when Transcending Sentinels starts, you are fucking ready for it to start as it seems to have an unnecessarily long build up. But these are minor quibbles on a record that has been a great end to my The Fallen clan challenge.

4/5

I believe that all albums in THE FALLEN: Doom Metal - The Early Days challenge are now reviewed by me.  Barring Witchfinder General and Type O Negative, this was a pleasurable experience and I have found some new favourite bands and records to keep me happy.  Especially pleased with the Funeral Doom offerings I have discovered here which I enjoyed more than some of the death doom content that I thought would be my main preference.  I have learned that there is epic doom beyond Candlemass, you just have to search for it.  I can see from some of the other challenges in the clan that I have some reviews and ratings already submitted so they will probably be a good place to continue my exploration.

Therefore, I would like to request entry into The Fallen clan please.  

Welcome brother Vinny!  

I've just noticed that I don't have the ability to recalculate cover ratings after changing someone's clan, so Vinny's ratings are not being applied to relevant Cover Clan Ratings. I'll have to reach out to my developer to fix that.

Welcome brother Vinny!  

Cheers Ben *raises goblet of sacrificial virgin's blood*

I just noticed that yourself, Daniel and I all have the same 4 clans. If Sonny were to add a fourth clan, I wouldn't be surprised if he joined us.

I guess it's not surprising, given they're generally the four most extreme clans.

All hail to brother Vinny - a much heralded addition to the ranks of The Fallen!

I just noticed that yourself, Daniel and I all have the same 4 clans. If Sonny were to add a fourth clan, I wouldn't be surprised if he joined us.

I guess it's not surprising, given they're generally the four most extreme clans.

Yes, Ben, you are right. I have been meaning to reopen my assault on the Horde's Death Metal: The First Decade clan challenge, but I just haven't been able to squeeze it in yet with the feature releases, draft reviews, playlist compilation and a project I am doing on RYM. But I intend to start soon and hope, ultimately, to join you guys in The Horde.

Congratulations (I should say commiserations as is customary in The Fallen) Vinny. Will you be wanting to contribute to the monthly playlists & be added to the feature release roster?

Congratulations (I should say commiserations as is customary in The Fallen) Vinny. Will you be wanting to contribute to the monthly playlists & be added to the feature release roster?

yes please Daniel

I intend finishing the March Fallen Playlist on Friday or over the weekend, so if you want to suggest a track or two up to, say 20 minutes total duration, Vinny, then that's great. Just let me have any suggestions by Thursday evening and we should be OK. Of course if you don't wish to then that is fine too.

I would suggest that we reduce our limit for The Fallen track nominations to 24 minutes each from next month Sonny.

Thanks Sonny, I will drop something in the correct thread.

I would suggest that we reduce our limit for The Fallen track nominations to 24 minutes each from next month Sonny.

Agreed. Let us go with that then going forward.

I would suggest that we reduce our limit for The Fallen track nominations to 24 minutes each from next month Sonny.

Agreed. Let us go with that then going forward.