What Are You Listening To Now - The Fallen Edition

The more I listen to this and get familiar with it, the more I really enjoy it. A bit of a sleeper for me. ‘Age of the Sea Scorpions’ and ‘Nascent’ are where it’s at.

Brilliant three-track EP of stoner doom telling a cosmic tale of wizards and dragons.

Heavy stoner sh*t, highly recommended for fans of Ogre, Sleep etc.

Celtic Frost - "Monotheist" (2006)

The fifth & final album from these seminal Swiss heavy-weights is an astounding piece of gothic doom metal. The production is absolutely stunning & you'll do very well to find a heavier release than this one. It's a true work of art that sees the band traversing a wide array of influences with the gothic rock of Sisters Of Mercy & Bauhaus getting just as much air time as your classic Black Sabbath. The diversity of approaches in the vocal delivery is a masterstroke too. This is certainly my favourite Frost release these days.

4.5/5

The Angelic Process - "Weighing Souls With Sand" (2007)

Ambient drone/post-metal from Georgia, USA.

3.5/5

Wrekmeister Harmonies - Night of Your Ascension

Expanding my horizons a bit during these strange times of quarantine and the whole drone/post-metal side of things is new to me in the main.  Played this yesterday whilst disinfecting the kitchen and it was fucking superb for my over-tired, emotional (lost a friend of the family this weekend) and challenging mood.                                                       

Revisiting some older albums in my collection. This is a solid EP - probably my favourite Jesu release. A nice mix of material.

Second album from side-project, dare I say super-group, Krux, spearheaded by Leif Edling of Candlemass fame. A bit more up and ‘epic’ than what I typically consume in this category, it’s quite solid without every really jumping out. Mats Levén puts in a real strong performance on vocals that I thoroughly enjoy, and the always reliable, future-Opeth guitarist Fredrik Åkersson pops in for some shredding yet melodic solos. Also features some past Entombed members. Solid and avoiding reinventing the wheel seems like a cruel classification, it’s just hard to ignore some of the members other projects that just have you wishing for something a bit ore.

Really solid traditional doom metal from one of the great under-rated female-fronted doom bands.

I've not listened to these guys before and I'm a little disappointed to be honest. Seems like they are trying to sound like New Dark Age era Solstice, but don't have the songs.

Ordinary.

Pentagram - Day of Reckoning (1987)

A band I finally got around to checking out in 2020 and in the last few days of 2020 I went on a doom trip listening to Windhand then a sharp turn back in time to The Obsessed and then Pentagram.  Very mellow vocals to my ears that still retain a sense of malice and sinister intent to add some edge to things.  Worth a punt to get me to check out more of their back catalogue at least.

Warning - "Watching From A Distance" (2006)

Warning's 2006 sophomore album is the absolute epitome of the classic doom metal sound in my opinion. The majestic atmosphere of dread & despair that I crave so much has rarely been presented in a more pure form than it is here. When I first heard "Watching From A Distance" back in 2009 I found that I really struggled with Patrick Walker's whiny vocal style but I have to admit that time has seen his genuinely emotive & honest approach burrowing under my skin to such an extent that I now regard him as one of the key components in what makes Warning so great. Musically, this may as well be funeral doom metal in that it's incredibly slow with an atmosphere that's so downtrodden & disconsolate that I'd imagine many metalheads will struggle with their own feelings. In fact it's use of dark but stunningly beautiful & melancholic guitar harmonies reminds me of Mournful Congregation's "Weeping" demo in that way & that can only be a good thing as I worshipped that tape in the mid-90's. You'll get hints at the early works of classic death/doom acts like My Dying Bride & Anathema here at times too only the high register clean vocals keep it centered in classic doom territory & seem inspired by Ozzy Osbourne's darker & more sombre 70's performances. Some will adore "Watching From A Distance" while others will undoubtedly find it depressing. For me personally, it creates a strangely uplifting & empowering feeling & by the end of the five epic tracks I feel emotionally drained but thoroughly rewarded. There are few releases that can have this sort of impact on the listener.

For fans of 40 Watt Sun, Pallbearer & My Dying Bride.

4.5/5

Cathedral - "The Last Spire" (2013)

These UK doom metal legends decided to turn back the clock for their final studio effort & it resulted in their heaviest, doomiest record since their classic 1991 debut album "Forest Of Equilibrium". A particularly chunky production job gets full value out of the wealth of wonderfully slow riffs & this enables the instrumentalists to easily achieve enough quality to cater for Lee Dorian's trademark vocal delivery which can be more than a little grating at the best of times. All six of the proper tracks fall comfortably into classic doom territory however only a couple of them stay there for their entire duration with the other four offering hints at traditional doom metal, stoner metal & progressive rock which I would imagine might have been a conscious attempt to summarize the bands career. Hell, there are even touches of gothic metal & death metal tossed about once or twice but these flurries of variation never last too long before a monstrous riff of pure doom tears its way back into the fold & crushes you under its enormous weight. Some of the song structures do sound a touch forced with widely disparate parts being pasted together without much in the way of natural progression however the power of the riff comes out on top on most occasions with Lee's more major failings predictably making for Cathedral's weakest moments. Is it just me or do a couple of tracks sound very much like Celtic Frost's doomier moments? I don't think I'm imagining it & would be surprised if it was pure coincidence. "The Last Spire" isn't a perfect record by any stretch but it's a damn sight more appealing than anything I've heard from Cathedral in a a very long time & I have to admit to being surprised by how much I enjoyed it.

For fans of Pentagram, early Trouble & Celtic Frost's doomier material.

4/5

KYPCK - "Черно" (2008)

The debut album from this Finnish doom metal outfit whose name is pronounced "Kursk". It's a very heavy release with a noticeable amount of gothic metal influence scattered across most of the tracklisting & the lyrics are presented in Russian so as to stay in line with the band's cold war gimmick. I have to admit that the Russian vocals don't do a lot for me but the crushing doom riffage & overall professionalism of the composition & arrangements is outstanding so I'd recommend that fans of Type O Negative, Crowbar & Triptykon check it out. 

4/5

Morgion - Solinari (1999)

Listening to this classic death/doom gem

Morgion - Solinari (1999)

Listening to this classic death/doom gem

I remember listening to this quite a bit when it came out and enjoying it. I think it's time I checked it out again!

Welcome to Metal Academy Emanuel!

Unearthly Trance - Stalking The Ghost (2017)

I bought this on vinyl on a whim as I was moving house and wanted something new to listen to at my new place.  Wasn't the most beneficial whim I have ever had from memory and I have hardly played it since but giving it a spin this morning as I get through chores and feel like I want something gloomy and moody on that still has a bit of bite to it also.

Blackened Doom Metal seems to have entered a bit of a purple patch just lately.

Old Forest's latest album, Mournfall, is another great example of the style.

Heavy and imperious metal with an inherent sorrowfullness:

Wolvennest- Temple

I stumbled across this by accident a few weeks back and actually really like it.  The Belgian accent in particular adds to the experience, especially on album highlight, All That Black.  I know Sonny is familiar with it so would be happy to take recommendations of similar artists in the occult/doom vein if you have any shout outs sir? (Or indeed anyone else of course).

Wolvennest- Temple

I stumbled across this by accident a few weeks back and actually really like it.  The Belgian accent in particular adds to the experience, especially on album highlight, All That Black.  I know Sonny is familiar with it so would be happy to take recommendations of similar artists in the occult/doom vein if you have any shout outs sir? (Or indeed anyone else of course).

The trouble with the majority of occult doom albums I find Vinny, is that the "occult" side of things is only in the lyrics and the music is often quite conventional. One exception that does spring to mind is 2019's Covenant by Karyn Crisis' Gospel of the Witches. I'll have to have a good think and get back to you!

Since there's only 3 months left in 2021 I've found myself a bit behind on checking out what the year has to offer, even though I've found quite a few winners. I had a strange feeling that I've just been way too happy and content with my life right now so I decided to fix that by starting to go through some of Sonny's Top 2021 Albums from his list since there are a ton of Fallen albums that I skipped over. Wolvennest is up first and Sonny's right in saying that this one takes some patience. I enjoyed it, but I don't think the extended, hypnotic songwriting ended up gripping me in the same way as it did for him. All the different vocal styles really help to keep it moving and the Gothic Metal influence on tracks like "Succubus" and "Disappear" is definitely neat, but the really slow tracks like the closer "Souffle De Mort" kept me from getting too far into this one. The atmosphere is well done but a bit subtle for me I guess? A solid 3.5/5 from me. 

Only now have I listened to this for the first time and it has had a most profound effect upon me. Within it's crushing drone I hear the dying of stars and the destruction of galaxies. This is one of the most affecting metal releases I have ever heard:

The new album from much underrated Floridian death doomers Worm. If you like foetid-sounding death doom that sounds like it crawled out of some necrotic, ooze-filled swamp then these are your guys.

The new Apostle of Solitude album Until the Darkness Goes, released last Friday, sees the band back on track after the lacklustre (in my opinion) From Gold to Ash.

While compiling February's Fallen playlist I stumbled across this absolutely brilliant album of blackened sludge metal from Russia. It was criminally overlooked last year, by me as much as anyone, but it deserves way more attention than it got hence I'm posting it here. It's not on MA yet, but I have asked Ben to add it.