The Doom Metal Thread

Deathwhite - Grey Everlasting

Pittsburgh doom/gothic metallers Deathwhite 2022 album seems like a little change of pace from the bands previous two albums. It's taken the Katatonia vibes of the first two albums and slowed it down to sound more like traditional doom metal. Alas, I was never the biggest fan of Katatonia's doom metal sound so I found the record to be rather simplistic and tedious. Perhaps some other well versed Fallen members will enjoy this more.

3/5

Pallbearer - Mind Burns Alive (2024)

I feel I need to recalibrate my approach to Pallbearer. Since their imperious debut, Sorrow and Extinction, they have moved further away from that album's massively crushing and melancholy doom metal in a more gentle, doomgaze-y direction that has found me becoming increasingly disappointed with the results. Mind Burns Alive continues that direction of travel and it is now apparent that the days of Sorrow and Extinction are well in the band's rearview mirror.

Firstly, the production has a light touch, without doom metal's usual focus on the bottom end and with a clear, clean sound that enhances the gentler material, but which, lightens the doom riffs when they hit, preventing them from attaining the overwhelming crushing weight which is most often the point of focus for doom acts. Songwriting-wise, it seems that Pallbearer are steering in a more post-metal direction, achieved by incorporating influences from 1990's and early 2000's alternative rock. A track such as "Signals", for example, has a very alt-rock intro, bringing to mind bands like Radiohead or REM and even when the doom riff kicks in, it feels as much like the heavier alternative or noise rock bands of the turn of the century as it does doom metal. It must be said though that Brett Campbell has the perfect voice for this style, his reedy and nasal delivery is very much suited to that particular alternative rock sound and feels just as much at home with the gentler material as it does the heavier.

I have a feeling that Pallbearer may be taking a leaf out of Patrick Walker's book and taking an emotionally redolent version of doom metal such as Walker perfected on Watching From A Distance and moving in a shoegazey, alternative direction, similar to 40 Watt Sun. As I said at the beginning, I think a reappraisal of Pallbearer is required at this point because, after multiple listens, by which time any lingering preconceptions have been shorn away, Mind Burns Alive is revealing itself to actually be an interesting album and may now even sit as my second-favourite by the band after the mighty debut. The previous few albums, certainly those after Foundations of Burden, have felt incomplete, like a band casting around for a signature sound without exactly knowing where they are heading, but I think Mind Burns Alive has seen Pallbearer arrive where they truly want to be and feels more complete and coherent as a result. Their's is now an emotionally-charged version of doom that builds from gentle, often non-metal, beginnings up to a crescendo whereby the heavy doom riffs act as a kind of catharsis for the fear or sorrow openly displayed during each track's earlier sections. The band are obviously very technically sound, but use this ability to build atmosphere and poignancy within their music, rather than to showcase their technical chops. The guitar solos, for example, sound mournful and full of yearning, used to elicit an emotional reaction rather than wow the listener with the musician's dexterity.

Did I even mention the saxophone solo that jumps out at you during "Endless Place" yet? I'm not completely convinced said solo was entirely necessary, but it does help to illustrate that Mind Burns Alive is actually a lot better and more interesting than I originally gave it credit for. To properly appreciate it, however, I have had to shift my perspective on not only this, but the band as a whole. I wouldn't say this is a perfect album by any stretch, certainly not for my particular taste profile, but it finally sees Pallbearer getting comfortable with a particular sound that plays to their strengths and which is even capable of swaying the opinion of a cynical old bastard like me to their way of thinking. In all honesty, I had been getting a little bit bored of certain sections of the doom metal scene's predictability over recent months, so it is great to hear something that has defied and redefined my expectations.

4/5

Daevar - Amber Eyes (2024)

Daevar are a german trio playing a version of stoner doom metal with female vocals that will be instantly familiar to any fans of Richmond's Windhand. Amber Eyes is their sophomore full-length, following hot on the heels of 2023's Delirious Rites debut. Thick and syrupy, heavily distorted, downtuned riffs are the order of the day here, crawling from speaker to ear like lumbering behemoths with such weight and heft that it feels like you can lose yourself in them and let them just carry you along. Vocalist and bassist Pardis Latifi has a very pleasant voice and croons and cajoles, mesmerising the listener into a hypnotic, dream-like state. In other words, this is the very essence of stoner doom and it is executed impressively. Pardis's elephantine bass lines and drummer Moritz Ermen Bausch's thunderous, but spare, drumming slowly heaves the tracks forward and provide the thick foundations required by the ponderous weight of the uber-distorted riffs. Guitar solos are quite sparingly used and are efficient in their execution, not becoming excessively noodling or swamped in psychedelic explorations.

The songwriting is very good and the tracks are quite catchy, particularly the title track and opener Lilith's Lullaby and these are the sort of songs that may find you humming them to yourself long after you have stopped listening to the album itself. Stoner doom can sometimes become self-indulgent, but Daevar's songwriting is fairly economical and none of the tracks are extended unnecessarily and never seem to drag, quite the opposite in fact. As I said at the beginning, they are very reminiscent of Windhand and some may say too similar, but if you are going to ape anyone's style then it may as well be the best in your given field and it isn't like blatant Band X-worship is rare in the metal world, is it? I enjoyed this far more than I expected to going in and with us entering the seventh year without a new Windhand album, then Daevar provide me with a nice warm and fuzzy hit of that particular doom metal drug I have been craving for so long.

4/5

The 3rd & the Mortal - "Sorrow" E.P. (1994)

The debut release from this talented, unique & inventive Norwegian progressive doom metal outfit is one of my all-time favourite records. There is a class to these four tracks that defies the short lifespan of the six-piece group with the unique three-guitar lineup providing for the beautiful layering of subtle melodic counterpoints. The soprano vocals of Kari Rueslåtten keep well clear of the cheesy gothicisms of her many copycats & I'd even go so far as to say that they're a genuine highlight of this outstanding record that sounds like no doom metal release you've ever heard before. It's got a soothing quality with the doom metal riffage being offset by gorgeous clean guitar arpeggios. In fact, this revisit has seen me having to find space for "Sorrow" amongst my Top 100 Metal Releases of All Time list, such has been its impact on me over the last couple of days, & I've very quickly found myself pulling out my "Tears Laid in Earth" CD for later in the week too.

For fans of The Gathering, Madder Mortem & Trees of Eternity.

5/5

The 3rd & the Mortal - "Tears Laid in Earth" (1994)

Another absolute classic from this astoundingly talented Norwegian progressive doom metal six-piece who now hold two places in my Top 100 Metal Releases of All Time after this week's revisit to their debut album which I bought on CD at the time of release. It's perhaps not quite as consistently transcendent as the "Sorrow" E.P. I revisited a few days ago but it still holds the ability to take me to the most lush & ethereal locations on the planet through its intelligent use of a triple-pronged guitar attack & stunning soprano vocals. "Tears Laid in Earth" is about as atmospheric as doom metal gets with a clear gothic influence & a noticeable ethereal wave component both going down a treat. The existing reviews & ratings for this release on the Metal Academy database are really pretty hard to fathom as this is a wonderful & massively underrated record.

For fans of The Gathering, Madder Mortem & Trees of Eternity.

4.5/5

Here's my adjusted Top Ten Doom Metal Releases of All Time list after finally getting around to properly scoring both of these records:

01. Pig Destroyer - "Natasha" E.P. (2008)

02. Ufomammut/Lento - "Supernaturals - Record One" (2007)

03. The 3rd & the Mortal - "Sorrow" E.P. (1994)

04. Celtic Frost - "Monotheist" (2006)

05. The 3rd & the Mortal - "Tears Laid in Earth" (1994)

06. Warning - "Watching From a Distance" (2006)

07. Anathema - "The Silent Enigma" (1995)

08. M.S.W. - "Obliviosus" (2020)

09. Electric Wizard - "We Live" (2004)

10. Cathedral - "In Memoriam" demo (1990)

https://metal.academy/lists/single/128

Delighted to see "Sorrow" and "Tears Laid in Earth" getting some love from you, Andi & Daniel. Both of those rank among my absolute favourite records in general (we're talking top 20 range at least), and I feel they offer an irreplaceable experience when it comes to atmosphere, arrangements & emotional palette. The band operates skillfully in tasteful & restrained melancholy, that seems to be informed by ancient tales and mythological grief, rather than the vulgarity of contemporary, urban sorrows. Add to that the angelic performance by the vocalist, and we end up with a spiritual experience like no other & a duo of gothic/atmospheric doom metal releases that would see no match up to this day. Well, at least for me, that is.