Sempiternal Deathreign - The Spooky Gloom (1989)^{Release ID: 8383}

The underground is barely known to the mainstream public, and one band from those illusive caverns would invent atmospheric death-doom. In Sempiternal Deathreign's only album The Spooky Gloom, you can hear slow doomy epics ranging up to 10 minutes and shorter death metal attacks. It's more varied than just a standard mix...

F***ing raw production right here! You can hear the guitar crunch with the equalizing bass fitting right in and sounding audible. So, nothing too special about that bass then... The excellent drumming varies from grind beats to slow doomy power, the latter leveling up the monolithic riffing. There's wild growling vocals all around, and fortunately, the lyrics can be read online in case you don't understand them just from listening. All in all, a great dark instrumentation setup.

"Creep-O-Rama" opens the album with atmospheric riffing before it turns fast and crushing with destructive drumming, and eventually spooky growling. Lots of good riffing lead up to before a chilling guitar lead ending climax. "Resurrection Cemetery" is so brutal and fast, with occasional slowness before ending with Slayer-like soloing.

"Devastating Empire Towards Humanity" starts with a soft ominous intro, before a riff that I guarantee will make you scream "SABBATH!!!" Well it does make sense because can you think of a doom metal band that's is NOT influenced by Black Sabbath? You probably won't. Though for the more elite old-school doom fans, the meaty rhythms can remind them of Pentagram and Witchfinder General. With those death metal elements still out and about, I haven't heard such a varying death-doom epic since My Dying Bride's "The Return of the Beautiful". However, "Dying Day" is where the quality dies down a bit, but I'm still in attention.

"Unperceptive Life" is a brutal track I would like more if it was more doomy and not so f***ing short at 2 minutes. The title track sounds so spooky and gloomy, fitting well with the title. This is probably the greatest early example of death-doom, sounding much doomier than the previous songs. They could've really pushed that sound into prominence, but they split up after this release.

The Spooky Gloom is very great, but a couple songs are a bit tiring and lose a bit of interest. Still this was a very unique album when it came out, practically giving birth to death-doom while different from what you'd expect in the subgenre. Slight flaws aside, this is what your ears crave in the deathly side of death-doom....

Favorites: "Creep-O-Rama", "Devastating Empire Towards Humanity", "The Spooky Gloom"

Dutchmen Sempiternal Deathreign's total official output is the six tracks spanning thirty-five minutes of this, their one and only album, The Spooky Gloom, which has got to make them one of death metal's most underground outfits. In truth it sounds little better than a glorified demo, but considering the type of ugly, stinking death metal that SD play this is in no way as much of a hinderance as you would think. The Spooky Gloom is an album of doom-influenced death metal with a couple of fairly long tracks, opener Creep-o-Rama clocking in at nearly nine minutes and the brilliant Devastating Empire Towards Humanity, which should be recognised as an early classic in my opinion, at almost eleven. It is punctuated by a couple of shorter, punchier more straightforward death metal offerings, Resurrection Cemetery and Unperceptive Life, which clock in at around two minutes and inject a shot of adrenaline amongst all the filth-ridden doominess. The two longer tracks constitute the first and larger part of the album with the aforementioned Resurrection Cemetery being lodged between them. Being released just a few months after Autopsy's Severed Survival which dabbled with Sabbath-influenced riffs, I think this may be the first true official death doom release. The big draw for me, with my history of doom-worship is obviously the longer, doomier material, but I think it's fair to say that when SD let rip on the punchier, straight-up death metal stuff then they could hold their own.

The band were a three-piece from Gouda in The Netherlands and were apparently all cousins, forming in 1986 and disappearing almost as soon as this debut was released. Drummer Mischa Hak and bassist Victor van Drie went on to join Eternal Solstice and guitarist/vocalist Frank Faase (who was sixteen years old when The Spooky Gloom was recorded) joined Sinister for a very short spell before disappearing from the (recorded) music scene. When The Spooky Gloom was released I think it is fair to say that there wasn't another album like it and that it paved the way for a particularly successful sub-genre of death metal and is extremely important in the development of death doom. The lead guitar is a bit thin sounding it's true and a beefier production job may have aided the doom-ridden vibe, but as it stands it sounds decidedly necro and that isn't necessarily a bad thing in my view. It obviously won't appeal to everyone, especially those raised on modern production values, but for those who prefer to dwell in the foetid sewers of the extreme metal underground it is both a historically important and a damn impressive slab of early, no-fucks-to-give death metal and as such I recommend it to the members of the jury!