Review by Shadowdoom9 (Andi) for Sempiternal Deathreign - The Spooky Gloom (1989)
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"