August 2026 Doom Metal Dominion: "The Fallen" Playlist - Metal Academy Radio
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2rSh9MnfQo9HmPLo2W5MBa
1. Age of Taurus - "The Bull and the Bear" (from "Desperate Souls of Tortured Times", 2013) [submitted by Sonny]
2. Khemmis – “Carrion King” (from “Khemmis”, 2026) [submitted by dk]
3. Kal-El - "Juno" (from "Astral Voyager Vol. 2", 2026) [submitted by Sonny]
4. Godthrymm - "Endure My Skin" (from "Projections", 2026) [submitted by Vinny]
5. Black Sheep Wall – “Nihility” (from “I am God Songs”, 2008) [submitted by dk]
6. Solystalgia - "Conflagration" (from "Solystalgia", 2026)
7. Monolord - "Iodine" (from "Neverending", 2026) [submitted by Vinny]
8. Crypt Sermon - "Christ is Dead" (from "The Ruins of Fading Light", 2019)
9. Crowbar - "Planets Collide" (from "Oddfellows Rest", 1998) [submitted by Vinny]
10. The Old Dead Tree - "It Can't Be!" (from "The Nameless Disease", 2003)
11. Dauðaró & Pantheïst - "Iron Dominion" (from "Af holdi og málmi", (2026) [submitted by Sonny]
12. WitchSorrow – “Hades Chains” (from “Hades Chains” single, 2026) [submitted by dk]
13. Flame, Dear Flame - "The Millennial Heartbeat Part I" (from "Aegis", 2021) [submitted by Vinny]
14. IAN – “Manuel” (from “Come on Everybody, Let's Do Nothing!”, 2025) [submitted by dk]
15. Melvins - "Queen" (from "Stoner Witch", 1994) [submitted by Vinny]
16. Ablaze in Hatred - "A Walk Through the Silence" (from "The Quietude Plains", 2009)
17. Messa - "Thicker Blood" (from "The Spin", 2025) [submitted by Vinny]
18. Khanate - "No Joy" (from "Khanate", 2001) [submitted by Sonny]
The great thing about The Fallen playlists is that because of my personal preferences there are very few entries that I actively dislike. At worst I might consider the odd gothic metal, stoner or trad doom track to be a bit 'meh' and, even rarer, there might be something extreme that just asks too much of me and causes sensory overload. Generally speaking, though, I enjoy almost every entry to a greater or slightly less great degree. Here are my thoughts on this month's entries:
1. Age of Taurus - "The Bull and the Bear" (from "Desperate Souls of Tortured Times", 2013) [submitted by Sonny]
"Desperate Souls of Tortured Times" sits pretty comfortably on my favourite trad doom albums list and "The Bull and the Bear" is the second best track on it after "Sinking City" (which has featured on the playlist before, so is given a miss here).
2. Khemmis – “Carrion King” (from “Khemmis”, 2026) [submitted by dk]
The Khemmis track is really nice slab of bombastic epic doom and methinks I even detect a bit of a gothic tinge to it.
3. Kal-El - "Juno" (from "Astral Voyager Vol. 2", 2026) [submitted by Sonny]
Not a band I am familiar with, the Kal-El track actually popped up after something else I was listening to on Spotify had finished and its killer stoner grooves caught my ear sufficiently to get it a pick here - I still need to check out the whole album though.
4. Godthrymm - "Endure My Skin" (from "Projections", 2026) [submitted by Vinny]
Godthrymm are a decent band, their relationship to My Dying Bride being evident throughout their short career and the mainman Aaron Stainthorpe himself even makes a guest appearance here. A nice piece of melodic gothic death doom, although Stainthorpe's rich vocals do put Hamish's reedier-sounding voice in the shade.
5. Black Sheep Wall – “Nihility” (from “I am God Songs”, 2008) [submitted by dk]
Anyway, enough of all this melody nonesense, its time for some sludgey noise. I haven't listened to Black Sheep Wall before, mainly being put off by their shitty album covers, but this is pretty intense stuff. In all honesty, I am not sure I could sit through a full album of it as it leans a bit too heavily on the noise side of the noise / sludge equation, but in the context of the playlist it fits in nicely and contrats heavily with the melodicism of the early tracks.
6. Solystalgia - "Conflagration" (from "Solystalgia", 2026)
Brandon from Nameless Graves Records asked me if I would check out the Solystalgia debut released on his label, although I have still to review the album, I found it to be solid, if not especially earth-shattering, slab of death doom with "Conflagration" arguably the best track on it.
7. Monolord - "Iodine" (from "Neverending", 2026) [submitted by Vinny]
Monolord are back with a new album and this is pretty much what we have come to expect from them by now. Doom metal with washed-out, distant-sounding vocals and melodic guitar leads. I think they got a little too lightweight earlier in the decade, but they have now rediscovered their old heaviness and are much the better for it.
8. Crypt Sermon - "Christ is Dead" (from "The Ruins of Fading Light", 2019)
Crypt Sermon aren't a band I have listened to extensively but the kids seem to like them, so here they are. Pretty melodic doom / epic doom metal that may actually be a little too catchy for my particular taste.
9. Crowbar - "Planets Collide" (from "Oddfellows Rest", 1998) [submitted by Vinny]
Crowbar meanwhile show how to really do catchy and heavy, a trick at which they are masters and for which I have found increasing respect over recent years. That guitar tone is just so fucking cool man.
10. The Old Dead Tree - "It Can't Be!" (from "The Nameless Disease", 2003)
I stumbled on the "Old Dead Tree" whilst trying to find gothic metal acts that hadn't featured on the playlist before and although they have had a track featured previously this stood out as gothic metal that I could actually get behind and, I felt, deserved a spot on the playlist. I like it - it is pretty heavy and is completely cheese-free.
11. Dauðaró & Pantheïst - "Iron Dominion" (from "Af holdi og málmi", (2026) [submitted by Sonny]
Basically this is a Dauðaró album that features Pantheist's Kostas Panagiotou on vocals and keys. I am familar with Pantheist, but haven't listened to Dauðaró previously. To be honest this is a little too post-metally for my taste, I prefer my funeral doom much heavier and all-enveloping than this more lightweight style, but it's OK.
12. WitchSorrow – “Hades Chains” (from “Hades Chains” single, 2026) [submitted by dk]
I have followed Witchsorrow from their earliest releases and own all their previous releases on CD, really enjoying their uncompromising and unapologetically conventional doom metal, but I was beginning to suspect that they had called it a day as it has been eight years since their previous album. This is actually quicker-paced than their usual fare and is even a little bit thrashy. I like it and will have to check out the whole album soon.
13. Flame, Dear Flame - "The Millennial Heartbeat Part I" (from "Aegis", 2021) [submitted by Vinny]
I am unfamiliar with this german five-piece, but really enjoyed this, Their brand of female-fronted doom is right up my street. I have checked the album out since and thought it was very good. I will hopefully be able to summon up a review soon because it is certainly worthy of the effort.
14. IAN – “Manuel” (from “Come on Everybody, Let's Do Nothing!”, 2025) [submitted by dk]
Another act I am unfamilar with, but which I enjoyed. Post-metal and atmospheric sludge are sub-genres I have come to appreciate more over recent years and this is a nice example of the heavy / light atmospheric trade-off that is often used as a compositional device in this very modern style of metal and the climactic build-up is very effective. I will certainly check this the whole album out at some time in the near future.
15. Melvins - "Queen" (from "Stoner Witch", 1994) [submitted by Vinny]
I do like a fair bit of Melvins, although I am never too sure what to expect from them. I do like it when they are in this sludgy, stoner mood though and this is a pretty groovy m-fer, so definitely gets a thumbs-up from me.
16. Ablaze in Hatred - "A Walk Through the Silence" (from "The Quietude Plains", 2009)
I was looking for some gothicy death doom, similar to My Dying Bride, that hadn't featured on the playlist before and stumbled upon these Finns. Instrumentally I think this is fairly impressive and a decent example of the style, although I have reservations with the deathly male vocals which sound terribly forced to my ears, The female backing vocals are pretty good however and I generally enjoyed it.
17. Messa - "Thicker Blood" (from "The Spin", 2025) [submitted by Vinny]
It is Messa, so of course it is great - end of story.
18. Khanate - "No Joy" (from "Khanate", 2001) [submitted by Sonny]
OK, so I was worried that listeners would think I had gone soft and that the playlist as a whole had a more upbeat vibe than maybe some I have put together and I couldn't have people going away from it with a warm and fuzzy feeling of positivity now could I? So with that in mind I turned to one of the most negative and disturbing drone acts I know - Khanate. Absolutely no light, no positivity... no joy. Just pure, undiluted hopelessness and misery. Enjoy....
Well as you are probably aware Sonny, I listen to an awful lot of non-metal music interspersed with metal. This month has been loads of Japanese Pychedelic jams, how this affected my mood when listening to the playlist who knows. Anyway when I listen to the playlists it's almost like a fresh listen to metal that falls under the Fallen umbrella.
On the whole it did feel a bit more upbeat than usual as you mentioned and ending with Khanate certainly went against that. I do love Khanate, but sometimes it can be just a bit much (well Dubin's voice can sometime be a bit much). Great final track though.
There was only the one track that I couldn't get behind on some level. I'm afraid I didn't like the female vocals in the Flame, Dear Flame song. Not quite sure why as I love the Messa track later on.
I enjoyed the first four tracks which had a kind of summery feel, well as summery as you could get from a Fallen playlist I guess. I know Age of Taurus that's a great album and I have nominated something from that before. The new Khemmis album I have rated at 3.5 and this was my favourite from the album. And I really enjoyed the stonery vibes from Kal-El (maybe that's where I am getting the summery feel).
Of course my nomination of Black Sheep Wall changes all of that, I love this band - an old work colleague of mine shared loads of metal albums with me back in the early 2000s which played a big part of me exploring metal again. At least one of the covers is awful, but it makes me smile that someone may have picked up I am Going to Kill Myself expecting something completely different. I'll cover my other two nominations here as well. I hadn't heard Witchsorrow before, but this new one stood out for me on the album probably because it has that thrashy feel that you mentions (to my ears it was a punky/hardcore feel - but thrashy I guess). IAN were reommended to me by someone over on RYM, I do love this atmospheric sludge/post-metal type stuff and recently there has been a few bands that have stood out to me. I think there was a tendency at one time that there were too many copies of bands like Neurosis, Isis and Cult of Luna, but I really enjoy some of these newer releases. I think I have another one lined up in next months playlist.
Of the rest that I hadn't heard before, I quite enjoyed The Old Dead Tree, Dauðaró & Pantheïst and Ablaze in Hatred, I rated the latter two albums at 3.5 and both the songs chosen were probably the highlights of the respective albums. Likewise the Monolord song chosen here.
Another good listen I look forward to next months
IAN were reommended to me by someone over on RYM, I do love this atmospheric sludge/post-metal type stuff and recently there has been a few bands that have stood out to me. I think there was a tendency at one time that there were too many copies of bands like Neurosis, Isis and Cult of Luna, but I really enjoy some of these newer releases. I think I have another one lined up in next months playlist.
Quoted dk
Cheers, David. I agree with you that atmospheric sludge / post-metal has now moved beyond the blatant copyism that plagued it for so long and a number of the recent bands are a lot more interesing as a result. I love CoL, Neurosis and Isis as much as anyone, but those guys have nailed that style down and new bands aping them have got to be something really special to even come close, so those doing something a bit different with it are developing the genre whilst forging themselves a more interesting path for the listener.