The New Music Thread : The Fallen Edition
New single from Green Druid's upcoming album, At the Maw of Ruin due out 4th December.
The opening track from Cult Of Luna's upcoming "The Raging River" album which is due for release on 5th February.
The new single "Hollywood" from the upcoming Emma Ruth Rundle & Thou collaboration E.P. "The Helm Of Sorrow" which is due for release on 15th January.
New album from Briton Rites, a decade after their previous, debut release.
BR feature veteran doom vocalist Phil Swanson of Hour of 13, Seamount, Vestal Claret, Atlantean Codex and more.
FFO classic doom metal.
Promo track, Nature is the Devil's Church, for Dread Sovereigns new album released today:
FFO Gates of Slumber, Grand Magus etc.
My favourite album of January is Tar Hag's Bestial, released on the 2nd, it's hybridisation of crushing doom riffs and psych solos with sludgy, guttural vocals is right up my street:
New album Abyssal Trip is awesome hypnotic doom in the vein of Electric Wizard from Sweden's Spelljammer:
Lake is the second track:
Excellent funeral doom from Daniel Neagoe's (Shape of Despair, Pantheist, Ennui) new band, Mourners:
Wolvennest have released the best album of the year so far. Not easily pigeonholed, it's 70+ minutes does for doom metal what Oranssi Pazuzu did for Black Metal with last year's Mestarin kynsi, blending psych-doom with black metal, gothic rock and space rock for a fairly unique release.
This is the second track, Swear To Fire:
A split album from Heavy Psych Records featuring two bands playing Electric Wizard worshipping occult stoner doom. The first is Mark Greening's Dead Witches and the other is the French outfit Witchthroat Serpent. I think Greening's mob are out-Wizarded on this split, but judge for yourself:
German trad doom four-piece Wheel released their first album in eight years back in April.
It's great stuff for fans of Lord Vicar, Spiritus Mortis etc.
Just come back from a sunset dog-walk that also allowed me time for an initial listen-through to Skepticism's new album, Companion released today. First couple of tracks were ok but didn't especially blow me away, but the heart of the album is fanfastic. The March of the Four is the longest and most funereal of the tracks and has a nice build with the organ featured heavily. That's followed by a killer piece of death doom entitled Passage that is a pacey mutha for the Finns. As I say, only an initial listen, but that album core is really impressive. Will try to work up a proper review next week when I've had more time with it.
...sorry, Skepticism have had to go on hold temporarily as I've just got hold of Warning's Watching from a Distance - Live at Roadburn.
Anybody who has listened to any of my bullshit already knows that the original WfaD is my all-time favourite album. This is an extremely faithful rendering of the album and Patrick Walker's vocals may be even more heart-wrenching as a one-shot deal (or due to there being an extra ten years in his vocal chords) than on the studio release. I can feel myself tearing up already!!
Here I am wide open,
Surrendering to your side
I have laid down my armour,
I have no sword at my side
I leave behind me the ruins
Of the fortress I swore to defend
I leave behind me foundations,
I'll leave you a man I'll need you to mend
And through all the battles around me
I never believed I would fight,
Yet here I stand a broken soldier,
Shivering, naked, in your winter light
My favourite vocal ever - gets me every time!!
Converge & Chelsea Wolfe - Bloodmoon: I
As someone who isn't the biggest Converge fan and has never listened to Chelsea Wolfe before, this one was still heavily on my radar as the year winds down. It's a fantastic blend of both Converge's and Wolfe's style without cutting too many corners, but fans who were expecting a ripping Mathcore album are going to be incredibly disappointed. I don't think this is an instant classic collaboration, but it's absolutely one of the most interesting meeting of talented minds in 2021.
4/5
Superb promo track from French, female-fronted, stoner doom outfit Deathbell that bodes really well for the full album due out 25th February.
Messa - Close (2022)
This is why I like the monthly features so much, since this may have flown under my radar had I not listened to Feast For Water. Instead, I was pretty excited to check this one out and it definitely delivers. Messa are a bit more experimental on this one and it pays off for them, fusing doomy riffs with more jazzy melodies and powerful as ever vocal performance. 2022 has been pretty slow for me so far so this one is a major standout, can't wait to see how it evolves after more listens.
4/5
Messa - Close (2022)
This is why I like the monthly features so much, since this may have flown under my radar had I not listened to Feast For Water. Instead, I was pretty excited to check this one out and it definitely delivers. Messa are a bit more experimental on this one and it pays off for them, fusing doomy riffs with more jazzy melodies and powerful as ever vocal performance. 2022 has been pretty slow for me so far so this one is a major standout, can't wait to see how it evolves after more listens.
4/5
Just given this an initial spin and am extremely impressed. Sounds even more diverse than Feast for Water, yet heavier too. I agree that it's not been exactly a vintage year for metal so far but maybe things are starting to look up.
Konvent - Call Down the Sun (2022)
Released 11-03-22 on Napalm Records
Konvent are an all-female four-piece formed in 2015 in Copenhagen, releasing their debut, Puritan Masochism in 2020. The debut comprised almost fifty minutes of sludgy death doom and was pretty solid, albeit lacking in variety. To be honest, this follow-up, Call Down the Sun, is very much in the same vein. The riffs have a Celtic Frost kind of vibe, being quite bombastic they invoke the atmosphere of a fading empire facing it's last days and are my favourite aspect of the album, the riff to Grains in particular is imperiously menacing-sounding. The vocals are alternately harsh sludgy barks and deep growls, the former being the most successfully employed, the latter I am not too sure about in all honesty, they lack the gruffness and abyssal depth of truly convincing death doom vocals. The tracks are quite samey and I sometimes found my attention wandering, which is never a good sign is it?
All in all Call Down the Sun is OK, but I couldn't really go any further than that. I would like to hear the band incorporate something a bit more diverse into their sound because, to be brutally honest, there are several others who do this sort of thing better.
6.5/10
Messa - Close (2022)
Released 11-03-22 on Svart Records
I've been a fan of Italian doomsters Messa for some time now and it gave me great satisfaction to see how well-received their Feast for Water album was when I nominated it as a feature release toward the end of last year. It was around that time that news of a new album leaked out and I have been greatly anticipating it's release since then and now it's finally here did it merit all that anticipation? The answer has got to be a resounding yes from me. On Close Messa have taken what made Feast for Water the release it was and have expounded on it, yet they haven't lost touch with their roots in doom metal and, if truth be told, their doom sounds even heavier here than it did previously. I will be very surprised if Close is not involved in the conversation when we talk about the 2022 Fallen clan award.
What sets Messa apart, however, is their willingness to incorporate other, often non-metal, styles into their doom material. Yes, other bands hybridise their doom with other genres like blues or gothic and black metal, but Messa incorporate even more diverse musical genres like dark jazz, middle-eastern music and even, dare I say, on the album's penultimate track Leffotrak, grindcore! One of the reasons I like Italian metal so much is that Italian bands are never scared to try something different with what can be quite basic genres and progressive music seems to be very much part of the Italian rock and metal scenes and Messa fully embrace this quintessentially Italian ethos. Sometimes, however, it falls that some bands' ambitions outstrip their abilities to fully realise them, this is most definitely not an issue for Messa as they are consummately skilled in delivering their auditory vision. In Sara Bianchin they have arguably the finest female vocalist in doom metal (if not all metal), the power and quality of her singing leaves most other doom vocalists in the shade, if you need convincing listen no further than opening track Suspended and tell me I'm wrong!
The opener is one of the more straightforward doom metal tracks on offer, but it so expertly paced and performed that it actually feels more complex than it is. It is here where it also becomes obvious that Messa haven't compromised their heaviness either for an increased diversity and complexity, as is further illustrated on Dark Horse which is a little bit bluesy initially, at least until it's Miserlou-like speedy breakdown around halfway through. This brings us to Orphalese that begins with a Middle-Eastern sound, reminiscent of some of the tracks from Hans Zimmer's Gladiator soundtrack, conjuring images of a Lebanese or Egyptian market scene, with Sara Bianchin's bluesy vocals soaring over it for a truly evocative and atmospheric track.
I don't intend to give a track-by-track rundown of the album, but if any album deserves one it's probably this. Whilst listening for the first time, I was genuinely excited to hear where each track would go as I had absolutely no idea, such is the variety of ideas on offer here. The performances throughout are excellent, whether it be Alberto Piccolo's guitar solos, Sara's vocals, the tightness of the rhythm section or the wind instrumentation of guest Giorgio Trombino and the production is crystal clear so that nothing gets in the way of the band's expression of their multifarous ideas. If there is any sense to the world then Close should propel Messa into the upper reaches of the metal universe and could well garner them exposure beyond metal circles. In truth I could spend all day heaping superlatives upon the band and this latest Meisterwerk, but why would you waste time listening to me when you could be listening to this instead?!
A resounding 10/10 (the album against which all others will be measured this year).
MWWB - The Harvest (2022)
Released 25/03/22 on New Heavy Sounds (vinyl, CD, cassette and download).
MWWB (having abbreviated their name from the mouthful it was previously) return with an even more atmospheric album than 2019's Yn ol i annwn. Alternating between dreamily-voiced, atmospheric doom metal and futuristic synthwave tracks it feels like a sci-fi concept album. The doom tracks are understated, but no less effective for it, relying on building an atmosphere rather than crushing the air out of the listener with massive riffs, Jessica Ball's ethereal vocals soaring over the instrumentation like a siren call. Don't get the wrong impression, this is still most definitely doom metal, I merely want to state that laying everything to waste with mournful sonic heaviness isn't the music's sole intention. The Blade Runner-like synth-driven interludes are a nice touch and help give the album a definite identity and aid it in poking it's head above the crowded field of female-voiced doom metal. A nicely interesting release that gives doom metal fans something a little bit different to digest.
Oh I might really dig this new direction if your description does it justice. I was looking foward to this one after really enjoying Yn ol i annwn and not really going back to any of their previous material, but wasn't able to get to it this week. Looking forward to it next week then I suppose.
Mares of Thrace - The Exile (2022)
Released 25/03/22 on CD & vinyl by Sonic Unyon. Digital version available via Bandcamp.
Mares of Thrace are a Canadian sludge / post-hardcore duo and The Exile is their third album and the first for almost a decade. The mainstay of the band is vocalist / guitarist Thérèse Lanz who has latterly been joined by drummer and bassist, Casey Rogers (who also produced The Exile), since original drummer Stefani MacKichan departed some time ago. I quite enjoyed The Pilgrimage, although it's been a while since I listened to it, so I was reasonably interested when I saw MoT had a new album coming out. Well now it's here I've got to say I'm impressed and I think it is actually better than The Pilgrimage, mainly due to the fact that it is more doomy than the former release with less focus on the post-hardcore element and as such would always appeal more to an old doomhead like me. Rogers, as producer, obviously knows what he is about because the production is way more suited to a doom-driven album with a thicker, heavier sound than previously. Thérèse's vocals still sound as aggressive as they did previously, the intervening decade not curtailing her vocal savagery one iota. The songwriting seems to have matured somewhat this time around, the songs sounding more complex and the playing more technical, sometimes briefly flirting with atmospheric sludge, all without compromising the band's innate aggression. Overall, something a little different to the usual doom / sludge template and a nice progression from the band.
Arð - Take Up My Bones (2022)
Released 18/02/22 on CD by Prophecy.
Arð is a solo project of Mark Deeks who, since 2016, has been the keyboard player for UK pagan black metallers Winterfylleth. Arð play a medieval-based, folk-influenced kind of doom metal that is, on the surface, a very different beast from Winterfylleth, yet if you are familiar with the Mancunians you will know that they are heavily involved with folk music, whether through their Harrowing of Heirdom album or Dan Capp's Wolcensmen project and the track The Green Cathedral on their The Dark Hereafter album is very much in the vein of the music on Take Up My Bones, albeit with blackened vocals.
I've got to say, despite initial reservations about an album tagged as doom and folk metal (no folk metal here), this has quite grabbed my imagination and is a very pleasant departure from a lot of the doom metal I usually listen to. Take Up My Bones' doom metal is very reminiscent of the kind of melancholic style often employed by any number of gothic doom outfits eager to follow in the footsteps of My Dying Bride et al, with contemplative piano, synths and strings woven into the fabric of the tracks, yet also containing the sweeping, soaring majesty found in some of the best atmospheric black metal from the likes of Saor, albeit within a doom metal context. The medieval folk elements are incorporated superbly well and sound sincere, thus avoiding the cheesiness so often (rightly) associated with any kind of folk metal. This is not the kind of medieval folk we would associate with The Lord of the Rings or fantasy scenarios generally, but a choral style of folk that has it's roots in ecclesiastical music.
The concept of the album is something to do with the relics of the bones of Saint Cuthbert, who was associated with Lindisfarne monastery and is the patron saint of Northumbria in the north-east of England where Mark Deeks makes his home. His remains were thought to be responsible for several miracles in medieval England and he was a big inspiration to King Alfred the Great in his battle against the Danes of ninth century England. The religious theme is realised by rich-sounding and nicely performed choral vocals that are very impressively produced and add to the overarching majesty of the music on offer. This is a very atmospheric album, weaving strands of melancholy and hope together into a gorgeous tapestry of sound. Arð aren't trying to squeeze the breath out of your body with huge, crushing riffs, but are rather trying to fill your soul with renewed hope.
As much as I love orthodox doom metal, it is nice to hear someone try something that is a little bit different and to eschew regurgitating the same old ideas. Take Up My Bones isn't a perfect album by any means, some of the tracks become a little samey and there is some limitation to how far a solo project and studio-generated effects can go, but I genuinely applaud Arð's attempt to produce something fresh in the doom scene and as long as artists like Arð can still serve up something of a surprise then doom metal is far from a spent force.
7.5/10
I enjoyed this one after an initial spin a few weeks ago, didn't know it was an offshoot of Winterfylleth. Definitely one to go back to for, like you said, something a bit different than normal with the cool Medieval influences. It's rare that this blend of styles doesn't get tossed into the fantasy, orc-slaying bin and even though I'm a fan of that kind of stuff more than most, Arð is still a refreshing find.
Edit: After another listen this afternoon I forgot how gorgeous this album can be, the orchestral and choir elements are perfectly placed as to not be overbearing while still attributing a ton to the atmosphere. It does plod along a bit too much here and there for my tastes, but it reminds me of a more bombastic and full sounding Obsequiae. Not sure if that's a good comparison or not, but it does remind me I haven't listened to their first two albums, which I really should do. Revisiting this one has really put me in the mood.