Funerary / Ooze: Split (2015)

The split album from Funerary and Ooze showcases two bands that are extremely raw, and whose names suit their respective genres, but otherwise have little in common.

Funerary contribute two tracks of funeral doom with touches of death and black metal. Raspy vocals, slow riffs, and a bit of feedback. They sound quite a lot like Thou, but (possibly due to production) not quite as heavy. Still, they produce enough atmosphere.



Ooze, on the other hand, veer more toward sludge metal--the more rough-around-the-edges, hardcore, and mostly mid-paced side of sludge instead of the doomy side. Think Crowbar, only with less polish.

It's an enjoyable listen, and smart to put the slower side up front. Ooze's riffs are catchier, but their sound is a little less satisfying than their counterparts. All in all, not bad work. And killer cover art.

The Verdict: 3 out of 5 stars

Ahab: The Boats of the Glen Carrig (2015)

As I’ve mentioned before, Ahab are proven masters of funeral doom. They began with two albums of crushing funereal death/doom. On The Giant they went with a more melodic approach with emphasis on loud/quiet dynamics. The Boats of the Glen Carrig continues that approach. And, of course, the nautical theme of their entire catalog.

I always find it difficult to write about funeral doom with the proper balance between comprehensiveness and conciseness, so I will err toward the latter. Soft, vaguely aquatic melodies and clean singing provide breathing space between crushing lurch-and-stumble doom riffs and death growls. Genuinely memorable melodies and leads make the tunes easily distinguishable from each other, with the last three tunes standing out as even better than the first two. Especially note the leads on “The Weedmen.” The compositions are long, but deservedly so.

It’s powerful, dynamic, and interesting throughout. It probably won’t draw in funeral doom doubters, but devotees will want to pick this one up.

The Verdict: 4 out of 5 stars

Warhorse: As Heaven Turns To Ash (2001)

The last two releases of the defunct Warhorse were reissued earlier this year by Southern Lord. This review will be confined to the band’s sole LP, As Heaven Turns To Ash. (The reissue also includes the final EP, I Am Dying.)



This is so heavy it nears a 1.0 on the Electric Wizard scale. Huge, lumbering riffs steadily pound the listener. Raspy, semi-growled vocals don’t add a whole lot, but they serve well enough to add the human element and keep you engaged. Only occasionally do they add a little speed for good measure, while acoustic guitar/piano/bongo interludes break up the hour-long album and keep it from suffering the slightest bit of drag. The mood is just, heavy, man. It’s not depressive or upbeat, it’s just—“Hey, listen to this because it sounds awesome.” And the music stands well enough that it doesn’t need anything like that.

The highlight of the record is “Every Flower dies No Matter the Thorns (Wither).” Not all the titles are quite such a mouthful, but a tune like this warrants an extensive name. It’s an incredible, steady descent, sort of a gritty reboot of Sabbath’s “Into the Void,” featuring a section focusing on bass and drum with underwater-sounding clean guitar as a reprieve.

The only question for me is, how did I not know about this band before? This is incredible.

The Verdict: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Doomed: Wrath Monolith (2015)

We’re All Doomed

Normally by this point in the year I’ve given out two or three perfect scores. This is the first for 2015.



In metal, the riff is king. The German death/doom monolith Doomed have a fucking lock on riffs. Massive lurch-and-stumble rhythms all around here. And their sound is just perfect. I’m reminded of a mix of Evoken and Doom:VS, with a pinch of Triptykon. It’s a brutal, pummeling death metal sound in a shambling march, with never-ending dynamics and obviously distinct, memorable songs. Sometimes, also, more melodic elements and squealing pinch harmonics reminiscent of My Dying Bride.

I’ll highlight two songs to illustrate the point. “The Triumph – Spit” may be the best tune on here. It begins with a fantastic stuttering riff and a compelling clean-ish lead, but eventually they charge ahead with a full-on death metal assault. “Looking Back,” on the other hand, has morose melodies worthy of Pallbearer, and partially foregoes the death growls in favor of clean vocals (and they’re no slouches there, either).

But that’s not the full extent of the variety. Every song on here is worthwhile, the pacing is excellent, and the production is exquisite. Get on this.

Doomed were complete unknowns to me before. And now they’ve dropped the gauntlet. So far, this is the best album of the year.

The Verdict: 5 out of 5 stars

Skepticism: Ordeal (2015)

Updated 7/27 with music clip

Skepticism was one of the first funeral doom bands, and they’re still going strong. If you don’t have the patience for it, move on. But if you’re into it, you’ll definitely want to check out Ordeal.

I think most people instinctively believe it takes a lot of skill to play fast, but not to play slow. I think that’s dead wrong. If you’re playing fast, you don’t need to keep a consistent tempo to sound good. Just listen to early Venom. But playing slow—funeral doom slow—takes an enormous measure of restraint and patience, and a steady heartbeat. As if to punctuate just how skilled they are, Skepticism opted to record their fifth full-length album live in front of an audience. For 78 incredible minutes, they maintain the pace and the mood. Point taken: These Finns are amazing.

So, fifth album—about that: Twenty-four years active with a remarkably consistent lineup, and only five albums. That’s the result of brutally high standards. (Check the ratings on their Metal Archives page if you don’t believe me.) Those standards have not let up in the slightest here.

Goatsnake: Black Age Blues (2015)

Hey, Yeah

For the uninitiated, Goatsnake are minor legends of doom metal. If you need to know their philosophy, the liner notes to one of their records list all their gear (only the best) alongside Black Sabbath riffs. In other words, they are unapologetically old-school.

Well, it’s been eleven years since they’ve released any new material, and even though Metal Archives says they’ve been active for all the years since 2004, I think that’s an overstatement. Playing a show here and there isn’t “active” in the same sense that you and I would use the word. In a sense, this is a long-awaited reunion.



And how does it sound? This is not the depressing doom I usually gravitate toward. Instead, it's practically upbeat, and catchy, with a Southern flair (despite their geographic origin). The wonderful "Coffee & Whiskey" sums things up nicely, the chorus, "Coffee whiskey, 'til the cows are coming home" and the riffs practically drawling under energetic solos. Even the pounding "Graves," with that ill-boding title and "Steal the light from the sun" doesn't trip my dark mood; it puts a smile on my face and involuntarily bangs my head for me.

Clean, manly vocals over catchy doom metal riffs. That’s all you need. But nice added touches lie in the harmonica of “Elevated Man,” the Hendrix-esque “Hey, yeah” emphasis points on “Jimi’s Gone,” and gospel-inspired female backing vocals (appropriately by a group called Dem Preacher's Daughters).

Don't miss this one.

The Verdict: 4 out of 5 stars

Bonus Feature! I drew a goatsnake:

Demon Lung: A Dracula (2015)

When I read the title A Dracula I couldn't help but chuckle. Any time someone refers to vampires as draculas, yeah, that's an old joke by now, but sometimes the best jokes are properly aged. I don't suspect they meant it as a joke here, but it is a joke.

Yes, it's time again for my quarterly female-fronted doom metal review. I don't plan it that way, but that's pretty much the rate that I'm listening to them.



Demon Lung have a great sound. It's raw, fuzzy, heavy, and I'm pretty sure everything is analog. That's the way it should be. Vocalist Shanda Fredrick employs a witchy style that's not terribly unusual, but fits the music well.

A Dracula starts out fantastically. After a silly intro track, "Behold, the Daughter" comes in with a crushing riff that's actually fast, contrasting with the slow vocal melody. The tune eventually slows down, setting the slower pace that prevails through most of the record. The next few cuts are solid, too. "Gypsy Curse" has a catchy vocal hook and nice, driving bridge.

The second half of the album is more of the same, but nothing after that point jumps out at me. It's perfectly listenable and enjoyable, though, so it could well be worth your time.

The Verdict: 3.5 out of 5 stars

My Silent Wake: Damnatio Memoriae (2015)

I make a big deal about not caring what a band believes, professes, or puts into their lyrics. Nonetheless, I’m still pulling for Christian bands to make solid music, because sometimes I feel pretty lonely as a Christian in the metal world. To that end, I started watching My Silent Wake several years ago, but they fell off my radar for the past few releases.

Their latest effort, Damnatio Memoriae, begins as a refutation of the idea that Christians can’t make good metal. The record begins with a badass riff in the My Dying Bride mold, with simple synth backing and cool leads. The death growls take the forefront, making it echo early MDB. The following track, “Highwire,” shows some new tricks for the English band. An energetic bassline and a black metal riff reminiscent of Dornenreich, in both the rhythmic sense and the blending of open and muted chords. If you’ve ever heard Dornenreich, or you’ve read my opinions on the band, you know this is awesome. “Now It Destroys” follows that triumph with a more death metal-oriented track, reminding me of Hesper Payne, and using plenty of gnarly guitar squeals.

Coffins: Perpetual Penance (Compilation 2015)

Regurgitated Guts, Japanese Style

Review by joanismylover, the third metal attorney.

My father is retired U.S. Air Force. From 1982 to 1985 our family served along side him in Tampa, Florida, at MacDill AFB. I spent the beginning of my "formative years" in the bloody sewage where death metal was just being [re]born. My buddy at Booker T. Washington 7th Grade school was - he claimed - good friends with Nasty Ronnie of Nasty Savage. I probably bumped into Chuck Schuldiner at the Brandon Mall, sneaking in to see Heavy Metal. I'm pretty sure my other buddy was the artist for Cannibal Corpse.* The colossal hole that is Tampa - Morrisound studios and all - is death metal, for all intents and purposes. But then the wretched path** of the USAF took us to Misawa AFB in Aomori Ken, Japan, where we served from 1985 to 1988.

Japan was not then or now known as a death metal hotbed. And yet - get drowned in [this] revelation - the Japanese have an uncanny ability to make inventions of the gaijin*** better. Cows are not native to Japan and yet, the steaks I had in Japan were some of the best I ever tasted. Automobiles were invented here in 'merica. What is the country of origin of your car? Here comes perdition - what is the best neck snapping death metal band for the last ten years? Japan's COFFINS, of course. Next week will see the release of Perpetual Penance, a compilation double CD that drops just about every split, single, flexi this prolific band has done from its inception til the dawn of doomsday. 16 songs, one hour and 37 minutes, 246.4 MB of Coffins. There are three - yes three - versions of "Grotesque Messiah" on this thing. A live version of "Under the Stench." All the axes of vengeance are present on this hellbringer. Do you really need all of this Coffins?

Hands of Orlac: Figli Del Crepuscolo (2014)

"You're All the Same, The Lot of You"

Review by joanismylover, the third metal attorney.

I had the distinct pleasure on Monday (April 20) to see Electric Wizard in Santa Ana, California. This is a band so steeped in doom and B movie horror films that it feels like they invented the melding of the two. They probably did. Emphasizing their prominence in this doom meets 70s horror genre, Satan's Satyrs opened. If that band's name didn't give it away, their biker metal with EW fuzzed tone did. Horror stoner doom. (Totally unrelated - In the interlude EW has the balls to play both Slayer ("Hell Awaits") and Celtic Frost ("Procreation of the Wicked"). I was head banging at the bar to Celtic Frost before EW took the stage because that riff is sooooo amazing. Talk about confidence). EW tore the house down. Everything you'd expect and want: a bottom end cavalcade of riffs TOO BIG to handle and a montage of all that x-rated 70s eurotrash satanic movie clips in the background. It was awesome. But what of Hands of Orlac?

Domovoyd: Domovoyd (2015)

The last time I mentioned Finland’s Domovoyd (based on their 2011 EP), I said they were basically Electric Wizard knockoffs. Today, there’s no way I can say that.

Domovoyd has come up alongside Oranssi Pazuzu in forming a small revolution in Finnish psychedelic metal. In both cases, the elements are familiar, but blended in a new way. But where Oranssi Pazuzu started with black metal, Domovoyd started with doom. And you might be thinking, well, doom and psychedelia aren’t exactly strangers. But I think you haven’t heard anything quite like this.

Acid King: Middle of Nowhere, Center of Everywhere (2015)

Time for the quarterly female-fronted doom album! I’ve reviewed so many of these by now, I have nothing left to say about the combination of feminine vocals and slow, meaty riffs.

Specifically, Acid King play stoner doom. It’s slow, mellow, and repetitive. Sometimes trance-inducing, sometimes weird echo effects, but always with a general feeling of psychedelia. The vocals aren’t anything special in this case. She doesn’t have a smoky, sultry voice, or some kind of ethereal, ghostly presence. Her tone is earthy, and mostly ordinary, but still good.

Atriarch: An Unending Pathway (2014)

Succession

The last time I talked about Atriarch, I focused on how they combine doom with punk’s equivalent of doom, deathrock. I said they were like a cross between My Dying Bride and Christian Death. But the more I listened to An Unending Pathway, the more I realized they are true spiritual successors to My Dying Bride.

I don’t have a handle on how well-regarded MDB are in general. Their name doesn’t seem to come up a lot. But to me they’re important, as they were one of the first bands that really struck a chord with me as I was getting into underground metal. And their prominent gothic influences, it would seem, were well ahead of their time.* That time is now, and the torch is passed to Atriarch.

YOB: Clearing the Path to Ascend (2014)

Ascension

I’ve always kind of felt that YOB is a bit overrated. No, let me rephrase that: I used to think YOB was overrated.

Despite Mike Scheidt’s crappy folk album leaving me cold, I already enjoyed both his growled and sung vocals (especially with Vhöl). Yet YOB’s work has always given me the sense that it was just, pretty good. Not great. Clearing the Path to Ascend has fully convinced me. It’s four epic-length tracks totaling over an hour of massive volume and crushing heaviness tempered with a broad emotional range . And it’s just, really good. Great.

Occultation: Silence in the Ancestral House (2014)

Stay Occulted

I very much enjoyed the previous Occultation album. My take on that was that it was female-fronted occult rock which actually sounded occult, not just, you know, B-movie style witchy. That’s thanks in no small part to the lead guitars provided by the Negative Plane guitarist. You can imagine, then, that I was pretty excited to get my hands on Silence in the Ancestral House.

Unfortunately, the new album doesn’t live up to my high hopes. The formula hasn’t changed all that much. This time, my early impressions were that it sounds much like Ghost’s first album, but with a strong preference for doom and those crazy lead guitars intact. Which sounds like an awesome idea, but it doesn’t hit the mark.

Tummler and Solomon: You've Worn Out Your Welcome (2014)

Three Bearded Dudes from Washington State

Doom just seems so simple. Why is it that there is such a wide gulf between the good ones and the bad ones, when, on the surface, they don’t seem all that different?

Tummler and Solomon don’t seem all that remarkable. Which is why it’s so remarkable that their level of quality on this debut album is so high. You’ve Worn Out Your Welcome is an example of the good kind of mellow stoner doom with drone leanings. Since explaining why it’s good or bad is kind of the purpose of a review, I’ll make an attempt at it. In the end it’s mostly an examination of what they don’t do wrong rather than what they’re doing right, but such is the nature of the beast in a genre with such well-established traditions.

Lucifer's Fall: Lucifer's Fall (2014)

Checking All the Right Boxes

Review by joanismylover, the third metal attorney.

All hail us some doom metal, probably my favorite of the sub-genres in metal. "Traditional" doom. This wizard of a genre is (not really) suffering a lot lately from offshoots of the death, sludge, and gothic variety. Not counting Pallbearer, there are only a couple of bands out there doing it - Hour of 13 and Magic Circle spring to mind.* The thrash revival came and went (and maybe never left us)? But there's not been a traditional doom revival. It has been a long time since this author has heard some recently recorded straight up doom, a la Reverend Bizarre and Candlemass. Enter Lucifer's Fall, with their self-titled debut.

Lucifer's Fall tick all the right boxes for the traditional doom category. Band name: suitably epic and downfallen, this is a straight up homage to Milton and that short poem he wrote about losing paradise. Check! Album artwork: putting a Paradise Lost painting right on the cover, keeping with the Milton theme. (Of course one thinks of Candlemass looking at it, as well). This is the right thing to do. Well done, Lucifer's Fall. Check! Song titles: Having a band name song (and by default the album name as well) is not really a traditional doom metal endeavor, but I'll give them a pass because otherwise the songs are about suffering wizards, summoning things, sinners, things unknown, death and deceivers. Traditional doom box: checked. Music: check!

Witch Mountain: Mobile of Angels (2014)

Coda

South of Salem came out of nowhere. A dormant doom band of little note recruited an unknown female soul singer, and suddenly they were a legitimately one-of-a-kind band. Not only that, but a compelling one, who garnered a whole lot of attention. Cauldron of the Wild expanded their palette even further. In the three years since, I don't think anyone has once come close to Witch Mountain's sound.

Unfortunately, singer Uta Plotkin will be leaving the band after this week, two days before this album is set to release. Mobile of Angels will serve as epitaph--or, at the least, the end of a remarkable chapter in the band's career. This is the band that got me to go to live shows again* (on occasion), so you might guess that this departure means a lot to me. It does. So perhaps it's my own feelings on the subject, but the new record reads as a sad farewell.

Ides of Gemini: Old World New Wave (2014)

Ides of Apollo

When we last left our heroes, they were doing a little something I called "dream doom." I wasn't the first to call them that, but I found it appropriate enough. The earthy female vocals delivered in an ethereal style, the slow but not terribly heavy guitar riffs, and overall dreamy feel was pretty well summed up by that.

With Old World New Wave, they've changed direction. They still do a bit of the dream doom ("White Hart" or "May 22, 1453"), but new influences have taken a prominent place. Opener "Black Door" is a bold statement of the change, with an uptempo riff and big chorus that--other than the vocals--sound like a completely different band. Indeed, it could be a Dawnbringer cover. But that's not indicative of everything else on the new album.

Wolvserpent: Perigaea Antahkarana (2013)

Not Merely Amplifier Worship

Wolvserpent is an accessible drone doom band. At least, if that’s possible, then they are it. If there is an entry point to this realm, Perigaea Antahkarana might be it. Or perhaps that’s asking too much.

The thing about Sunn O))), or Nadja, or some manifestations of Boris: they sound cool and everything, but a lot of what they do doesn’t sound like a song. Throughout this album, Wolvserpent always sound like they’re playing a song. For a perfectly listenable 80 minutes, by the way, and if you know my reviews you know that I am extremely critical of bands who go on longer than necessary. Wolvserpent did not overstay their welcome.