December 2019 Feature Release - The Fallen Edition

The start of December sees us kicking off a new undertaking. We'll be nominating a monthly feature release for each clan & are asking you to rate, review & discuss it for no other reason than because we enjoy it. Ben & I will certainly be contributing & we look forward to hearing your thoughts too.

This month's feature release for The Fallen is the 1984 four-track debut E.P. from Italian doom metallers Paul Chain Violet Theatre entitled "Detaching From Satan". It's an unusual little record that challenges the listener by putting them well outside their comfort zones. We're interested to hear what you think of it so don't be shy.

I've posted my review on the album page itself, but I'll summarize quickly for here. 

A lot of the Doom Metal I've listened to hasn't been traditional, so this album is like stepping into a time machine and having to reorient my expectations when it comes to composition and guitar tone. The guitar work was fantastic, but I wish the production and other effects, such as the vocal echo and reverb as well as the poorly mixed drums, didn't muddy it up so much. I enjoyed pretty much every riff, especially the somewhat progressive-psych insanity of "Voyage To Hell", but everything else didn't give me that distinct Doom Metal vibe that I was expecting. When it tried to create some atmosphere with synths or effects, it came off as somewhat misguided and annoying rather than atmospheric and gripping. "17 Day" almost gets there, but the synth effects at the end taking up so much space and pushing all other sounds back really put me off. 

Great review Xephyr. You've clearly given the release a chance, and explained your views succinctly.

While I won't give away my views on the release yet (I plan to reassess it in the next week or so and hopefully write a review), I will say that I too initially struggled going back to traditional doom metal after years of submitting myself (very willingly) to death doom and funeral doom. It wasn't until Daniel and I chronologically explored the beginnings of metal for the Metal Academy podcast that I found myself appreciating traditional doom more.

If you check out the early albums of Trouble and Pentagram, and also Cirith Ungol's King of the Dead album, you'll hear riffs that are more in line with modern doom, but there are definitely other influences throughout those albums. I guess that shouldn't be surprising, as metal didn't really have any categorisation at this point. It was all just metal, and the doom metal template hadn't yet been solidified. The bands I just mentioned were really just taking one aspect of the Black Sabbath sound and giving it more prevalence. I don't think Paul Chain was necessarily doing that. I think he was just experimenting with sound and atmosphere, which makes labelling the result more challenging.

I agree that it was a well thought-out & composed review.

Don’t worry Xephyr. If you haven’t gotten to the feature from The Infinite yet then you’ve got some seriously doomy material waiting for you there (amongst other things).

I think the appreciation of this EP (and Paul Chain as a whole) really depends on how you approach him. I look on this as an early-ish doom metal demo and Mr. Chain himself as an innovative ingenue who's ideas sometimes outreach his abilities to deliver them. Personally I love this record, Chain's vision of the early doom sound, particularly of Witchfinder General and Pentagram, expanded on with all manner of synths and effects has the hallmark of a true mad genius reaching for the stars. The lo-fi production quality and his sometime questionable vocal performance, coupled with his killer riffs,  only increase the charm of this record for me. Then again, I have always been a sucker for lo-fi demos and feeling over technicality, but if your taste tends more to well-produced and technically adept metal, then this probably isn't going to be the record for you. Personally, I was made up that Daniel chose this as the first feature release of The Fallen - great choice, my man!