Meuchelmord - Apathie EP (CD Review)

01.Einklang
02.Seelenfrieden
03.Jahr
04.Apathie
05.Regeneration



Cernunnos (Guitar/Vocals/Drums/Bass/Keyboards)

One man depressive black metal from Germany, began in 2011 and after three releases went away in 2013.Now returning with this new EP.

Beautiful piano opening to 'Einklang', starts to give way to almost industrial metal sounds before moving into a brief black metal blast and then after a bit more piano we come to some evil screams and 'Seelenfrieden', with its quite uplifting and melodic backing, driven by a catchy guitar riff and some timing changes this shapes up into a great almost symphonic styled piece, yes its rough around the edges but not that depressing at all!

'Jahr' with its distortion and downtuned, slow and pounding rhythms is almost into sludge metal, however the growl vocal and piano soon return this to a dark and moody song. Great backing vocal effects help give this a ghostly feel as well.

It's strange but 'Apathie' with its upbeat drums and happy sounding guitar playing, somehow still manages to be an overall downbeat song, maybe its when all hell breaks loose and the heavy guitar riff comes in over the screaming vocal?

'Regeneration' is more of a "pure" black metal piece, the piano really comes through on this one, subtle but near perfection.

Rating 9/10
For fans of: Castle, Triptykon, Balmog, Dryom, Axis Of Perdition

IL Vuoto - Weakness (CD Review)

01.And Night Devours Me
02.The Harvest
03.Sea Of Emptiness
04.And Night Took Her
05.Through Mirrors I Saw The Ghost Of Me
06.I, Essence Of Nothingness
07.Closure XVII


Il Vuoto (All Instruments/Vocals)

Guest
Jurre Timmer (Sorrow and Lamentations)

After two demos released previously this year, Weakness is the first full length from Funeral Doom Metal one-man band, Il Vuoto from italy.

Depressing and super-slow doom metal, with a soft drone vein and symphonic elements,
Jurre Timmer of 'Algos' returns on guest vocals, having previously sung on the Sea Of Emptiness demo released this may.


'And Night Devours Me' has this wondeful piano beginning which goes into some stunning and atmospheric music. When the drums and guitars really kick in, this remains a slow, dark and highly melodic ten minutes.
The dark vocals are backed by some fantastic choral work.

A change of pace with 'The Harvest' which is a funeral doom/black metal styled song, painful and slow and very evil.

Returning to more melodic territory is 'Sea Of Emptiness', of course when i say melodic i mean in terms of the backing music, the vocals are very gruff.
The second half of the song has some jazzy guitarwork, nice piano and some spoken word bits.

Strange mix of piano and violin on the short instrumental 'And Night Took Her' is followed by a quiet, melodic almost gothic piece.

Another ten minute monster next with 'I, Essence Of Nothingness', at times this ventures into near progressive rock, a clever and well thought out piece that has the heavy elements of black metal and doom but the melody and structure of neo-prog, outstanding guitarwork at times.

Perhaps 'Closure XVII' is the perfect way to end, a short classical piece with piano and violins.


Rating 10/10
For fans of: Shape of Despai, Nortt, Monumentum

Doomed - Wrath Monolith (CD Review)

01.Paradoxon
02.Our Ruin Silhouettes
03.Euphoria’s End
04.The Triumph – Spit
05.Looking Back
06.I’m Climbing

Pierre Laube (All Instruments/Vocals/Programming)
Yves Laube (Lead Guitar)
Andreas Böse (Drums)
Frenzy Pfeifer (Bass)

Guest Vocalists & Musicians:
Pim Blankenstein (Officium Triste)
Ed Warby (The 11th Hour)
Johan Ericson (Doom: VS)
Anny Bauermeister & Andreas Kaufmann (Hatespawn)
Grimo (Cytotoxin)

The fourth album of the German band formed back in 2011.Designed in the style of previous Doomed works, continues to present canonic doom death metal, rigid and uncompromising, but more vigorous in terms of performance. Guest vocalists, including Johan Ericson (Doom: VS) and Ed Warby (The 11th Hour), bring new paints and emotional colors to the album. At this time, however, changes occur in band ideology: this concept album considers the crisis of the modern world, with its conflicts and human sins, forcing musicians to reconsider the understanding of society and to seek ways out of this situation. Solution to all problems is on top of the Monolith. Monolith is growing every day, so it is impossible to reach the top..

'Paradoxon' starts with some nice classical piano and then launches into some epic funeral doom with a superb production quality not often heard with this genre.
Yes it still  has that low growl vocal style, however, the music just carries the whle thing, nice melodic breakdowns lead you nto some more furious death metal tinged elements before returning to melody and finally back to the funeral doom.

A change of pace with 'Our Ruin Silhouettes' which at times sounds more like symphonic metal, as does to a certain extent 'Euphoria’s End', both have very melodic and upbeat riffs and keyboard, only the vocal keeps it doomy.

Screeching birds? well thats what the intro to 'The Triumph - Spit' sounds like to me, but the music is a slow pounding headbanger of a song with a catchy keyboard and guitar sound. Add to this an evil sounding Death Metal vocal and this shapes up to a dark monster.

Another melodic doom workout with 'Looking Back' leads us into the final track 'Im Climbing' a short and nasty death metal/screamo piece, full of hate and anger yet keeping a melodic background through keyboard and guitar riffs.

Rating 8/10
For fans of: Dread Sovereign, Cathedral, Serpentine Path, Primitive Man

Palinopsia - Murmurs From The Well Nothing More (CD Review)

01.Three Sisters
02.Silt
03.The Unturned Snare
04.Morning Hid The Hills
05.Celestial Rift

Macaulay Lerman (Guitar/Vocals)
William Morse (Drums)
Johnny Reiter (Bass)
Haydn Smith (Vocals)

Blackend doom project from Vermont started in september 2014.

'Three Sisters' starts with distortion and feedback and kicks into some classic stoner/doom sounds before decending into much darker metal, even in this 2 minute song they manage to create a multi structured song kinda like Queens Of The Stone Age morphing into Cradle Of Filth!

Sticking to more traditional ground the dark edged 'Silt' keeps it on the same doom laden level throughout with that black metal style vocal.

'The Unturned Snare' carries this theme on with a touch of chaos thrown in as if its that off the hip/dont give a fuck stoner attitude.

Slow and melodic almost gothic in its opening the 'Morning Hid The Hills' keeps it stripped down to a few well chosen notes, yes the songs builds but never stays away from the ambience, that said there is a little blast beat towards the end.

Finally 'Celestial Rift', starts as full on grindcore! now that really takes you by surprise and leaves you to wonder where this is going, but it calms down to some suitable paced doom.

This is a great EP a few nice surprises and one that is well thought out, mixed and produced, makes a change to hear something with a gruff vocal style but one that both is listenable and actually fits the music.

Rating 9/10
For fans of:Atrum Tempestas, Triptykon, Algoma, Boris, Sunn o)))

Dryom - 2 (CD Review)

01.Mertvyj Gorod
02.Risunok
03.Metel’
04.Ona

Musicians Unknown

The second work of the mysterious Russian project, which is actually the first full-length album following demo “(1)” which was officially issued three years earlier. “2” features a balanced approach to the sound level which significantly improved compared to the debut demo, while music-wise DRYOM remains dedicated to funeral doom metal with a unique atmosphere of gloomy dead landscapes of abandoned cities and vast twilight spaces of the dead nature. The unique features are brought by employment of jew’s harp and flute, which add a light taste of ethnic music translated through the aesthetics of the funeral metal.


The first of 4 huge workouts is the 13 minute 'Mertvyj Gorod', stunning beautiful guitar playing and a very dark funeral vocal, half way through the jew harp makes an appearence and i have to say it is very hypnotic, works so well and something few if any other band has used in this genre of music, as the song progresses the guitar gets more agressive and more layers are created with keyboards.

'Risunok' is 15 minutes long, that jews harp is once again put to great use, its sounds so strange to be making a big point about this simple instrument, but it just makes this music soar to a new height, the only slight issue i have with this is the Flute, it seems out of tune with the rest of the music.

At just over 10 minutes 'Metel’ is the "short" one, nice keyboard running through the whole piece and some near (slow) thrash riffs as well.

Finally a 17 minute monster called 'Ona', follows the same composition as previous tracks, except for the quiet breakdown around 8 minutes which is simple yet atmospheric guitar playing.Eventually this is brought to a torturous end with distortion and that jews harp.


Rating 10/10
For fans of: Sunn o))), Earth, Norse, Ulver, Wolveserpent, Boris, Sigh

Woebegone Obscured - Deathscape MMXIV (CD Review)

01.Deathscape MMXIV
02.Catharsis Of The Vessel
03.While Dreaming In The Ethereal Garden
04.Call From The Grave
05.Xavier

D.Woe (Drums/Keyboards/Vocals)
Q.Woe (Guitar/Keyboards)
M.Woe (Guitar)
Andreas Tagmose Grønkjær (Fretless Bass/Cello)

Danish band formed in 1993, they play blackened funeral doom drenched in anguish and despair. As a band they strive to create an intense dark atmosphere of sorrow and melancholy on stage and in the studio.


'Deathscape MMXIV' has some intresting music going on, from jazz like guitar, gothic undertones, rhythmic metal, doom elements, you name it, it's in there.
What really makes this stand out is the dual vocals, the dark funeral style and this amazing harmony style, stunning!

If that wasn't enough t get you intrested they go and add even more into the 11 minute epic 'Catharsis Of The Vessel', this starts with an almost space/psychedelic vocal and backing music with more stunning vocals, the music builds and builds getting heavier with each crash of the drums, then the double pedal work gets into gear, then the riffs appear, just as it starts to reach speed, it slows right down and the dark vocals come in but then that other vocal style appears again, i tell you it is brilliant.

Up next is an "Ethereal" sounding acoustic neo folk piece, which is then followed by an evil sounding full on funeral doom song.

Finally 'Xavier' with it's acoustic intro leading us into a near gothic doom song that stays "atmospheric" throughout.

Rating 10/10
For fans Of: Atrum Tempestas, Aeternum (UK), My Dying Bride

Who Dies In Siberian Sludge & My Shameful - Split EP (CD Review)

01.The Tomb Of Kustodiev
02.And It Will Pass

By 'Who Dies In Siberian Slush' who are a funeral doom band from Moscow, formed back in 2003, initally as a one man project by "E.S" until a full line up in 2008.

E.S. (Vocals)
Flint (Guitar)
Gungrind (Guitar)
Cry (Bass)
L.K. (Trombone/Keyboards)
A.S.(Drums)
A.Z. (Flute)

Dual guitar playing, Flutes and Piano, wow what a start to 'The Tomb Of Kustodiev' then it just gets really heavy and slow with demonic growling vocals over drums and powerchords and that Trombone, i tell you this is quite something to listen too.

'And It Will Pass' is much more traditional funeral doom, again what makes this stand out from the rest is the use of the non traditional instruments, it simply creates another superb layer and some great phased guitar playing adds a nice tone.

This just leaves you wanting more!

Rating 10/10
For Fans Of: Cathedral, The Slow Death, Ulver, Blood Ceremony

03.The Land Of The Living
04.Downwards

Last 2 songs by 'My Shameful' also a funeral doom band started as a two man group in 1999 and are now a three piece (though for some reason there are 4 in the promo picture!) and from Finland.

Sami Rautio (Vocals/Guitar)
Twist (Bass)
Jürgen Frohling (Drums)

By contrast from the first band 'The Land Of The Living' offers a more straight forward take on the genre, slow and painfull with a couple of breakdowns, this does exactly what you want from funeral doom.

Now 'Downwards' seems to add near gothic undertones to the mix with the guitar sound, musically the pace is slightly more "upbeat" (did i just say upbeat?), in fact this one tends to lean towards black metal in its overall sound.

Rating 10/10
For Fans Of: Triptykon, Dolorian, Wolvserpent, Doomed, Algoma

My Shameful - Hollow (CD Review)

01.Nothing Left At All
02.Hollow
03.And I Will Be Worse
04.Hour Of Atonement
05.The Six
06.Murdered Them All
07.No Greater Purpose
08.Now And Forever


Sami Rautio (Vocals/Guitar)
Twist (Bass)
Jürgen Fröhling (Drums)
Mario (Guitar)

Begun in 1999 as a two-man studio project, evolved into a multinational machine of hate and doom based in Finland.

Eight huge slabs of funeral doom, does exactly what you want from this style of music, presenting gutteral vocals, slow pounding drums and solid chord structures.
What i also like about this is the tone of the lead guitar, it reminds me of early goth bands like Bauhaus.
This all helps to create the perfect mood, hard to pick any one track as such but 'Hour Of Atonement' and 'Murdered Them All' do leap out the speakers due to the overwhelming ambience of gloom yet tinged with great melody.

Rating 9/10
For Fans Of: Triptykon, Wolveserpent, Necropoli, Witchsorrow

AlgomA - Reclaimed By The Forest (CD Review)

01.Bedsores
02.Fell Down A Well
03.Reclaimed By The Forest
04.Tertiary Syphilis
05.Go On, Git!
06.Extinct Volcanoes


Darby Wiigwaas (Guitar/Vocals)
Kevin Campbell (Bass/Vocals)
JV (Drums)

AlgomA is a devastating, crushingly heavy Sludge/Stoner/Doom band from Northern Ontario, Drenched in depression and utter despair.
Formed in November 2012 they do seem somewhat obsessed with songs that deal with a wide range of depressing subject matter.

Opening track 'Bedsores' is a ten minute uncompromising doom/sludge masterclass, downtuned to perfection with enough bass rumble to disintegrate any solid object within range.

'Fell Down A Well' does the same in half the time but with some ear destroying feedback thrown in over some screaming and tortured vocals.

After another sludgefest with 'Reclaimed By The Forest' comes 'Tertiary Syphilis' a noise filled and at times chaotic piece, extended distortion notes over some pretty wild drumming and then some heavy as hell riffs kick in.

'Go On, Git!' has elements of punk lurking in the doom laden sounds and even some proto thrash or early black metal riffs in there.

The final piece 'Extinct Volcanoes' is eleven minutes long, after a sample intro comes endless distortion and running fingers up and down the strings, a noisey start, then this slow riff starts and the drums begin at funeral pace.
The vocals are another tortured workout screaming for dear life throughout.

Rating 7/10
For fans of: Melvins, Unsane, Sunn 0))), Boris, Earth

Spina Bifida - Ziyadah 2014 Reissue (CD Review)

01.Intro
02.Witchfire
03.Reverse
04.Purest Queen
05.Individual
06.Aimless
07.Gotterdammerung
08.Verdict
09.Die
10.Outro

Bonus Demos:
11.Witchfire
12.Verdict
13.Die
14.Purest


Veronika (Bass)
Gerard (Drums)
Rob (Guitar)
Harrie Van Erp (Guitar)
William Nijhof (Vocals)
Jeroen van Veen (Bass)

Memento Mori presents a reissue of the highly underrated Death/Doom classic from back in the day by the Dutch band Spina Bifida. Now this is crushing Death/Doom, comparable to the likes of Disembowelment, Winter, Dusk (US), Ceremonium, Mythic, Rippikoulu, Sempiternal Deathreign, Castle, Symphony of Grief, Autopsy and Asphyx. The band doesn't waste any time on faint melodies but instead works to insinuate deafening sounds of Doom with the heaviness and aura of Death Metal. 'Ziyadah' has a strange appeal about it - you keep coming back to this album even after years because Spina Bifida has found a unique balance between Death and Doom, and here you have the band's entire discography, including the demo 'Symphony of Indictment'.

Forming in 1990 and releasing their first demo in 1992, the band can hardly be considered a founding father of the genre, especially by Dutch standards. The “almost” furtive release of 'Ziyadah' in 1993, the only album in their discography, on French-based Adipocere Records did not stir the scene back then, but has since achieved "Cult" status, one time bassist Jeroen van Veen, now plays with Within Tempation.

So after the pointless intro passes the first proper song 'Witchfire' starts, its a sludge/doom affair with growly and gruff vocals and little else in the way of musical structure.

'Reverse' has slightly more to offer with a slighlty more up tempo beat and a bit more guitar work thrown in along with a brief bass solo.

The death/doom element comes to life on 'Purest Queen', by far the best track so far, nice harmonic guitar riffs thrown in to bring some depth.

'Individual' becomes the next stand out track, first of all it has a great funeral doom feel but best of all is the vocals which are sung clean to start with with some nice backing and when its goes to the growl style it seems to fit the mood as opposed to just being the standard.

After the straight forward 'Aimless' comes 'Gotterdammerung' a song that could be mistaken for early Hellhammer, slow and doom laden crushing riffs over a basic drum pattern and near spoken death growls create a dark atmosphere.

The last two songs revert back to their basic sound and the outro is as pointless as the intro was.

The four demo versions are intresting as the songs seem slightly slower and more sludge than death doom style.

So all in all a pretty good album, wouldnt call it an underrated death/doom classic but i have heard worse, thing i dislike more than anything is the bands name!

Rating 8/10
For fans of: Hellhammer, Triptykon, Castle, Sunn 0))), Electric Wizard

Dysphorian Breed - The Longing For The Tides Of Metamorphosis (CD Review)

01.The Tides
02.The Longing
03.The Metamorphosis

David Fredriksson (Vocals/Guitar/Bass/Programming)

Dysphorian Breed is a one man metal project from Sweden started only a few months ago by former black metal vocalist and multi instrumentalist David Fredriksson.
Influences range from funeral, sludge to gothic doom metal.


'The Tides' opens with some nice choral keyboard sounds over a simple down tempo guitar/bass/drum rhythm, it then slows slightly as the vocals come in, fairly typical gruff/demonic vocals.
The song does however throw some intresting timing changes into the mix, at one point we get to near break neck speed, then a funeral doom riff over more keyboard.

Though it could be said that 'The Longing' is simply more of the same, there is more keyboard work on offer here which helps to create a slightly symphonic feel, also some great double pedal drum work and a few fancy riffs go to make a bigger sounding song.

A very "Kraftwerk" sounding synth throughout 'The Metamorphosis' and i love it!
When the synth stops it turns into a dark and evil sounding black metal inspired doom workout.
Around the 4 minute mark the drums really pick up and for a minute i'm thinking this could explode into some full on black metal, however David resists and gets that awesome synth into play and the song soon sadly ends.

This is a brilliant debut and that it is a solo recording makes this even more impressive.

Rating 9/10
For fans of: Reverend Bizarre, Thergothon, Triptykon, My Dying Bride, Shadow Of The Torturer

Narrow House - Thanathonaut (CD Review)

01.Crossroads
02.The First Day Of The Rest Of Your Life
03.Furious Thoughts Of Tranquility
04.The Midwife To Sorrows
05.Thanathonaut
06.A Sad Scream Of Silver
07.Crushing The Old Empire
08.The Last Retreat
09.Doom Over Valiria
10.Bospoaehne


Yegor "Bewitched" (Vocals/Guitar)
Atya (Synth)
Artiom (Drums)
Kso (Saxophone/Keyboards)

Narrow House are a Ukrainian metal band which was started in 2009 as an atmospheric funeral doom project. The first album of the band titled “A Key to Panngrieb” was published in 2012 by Solitude Productions. After completing the debut album, band took a new musical direction, combining various doom metal subgenres (traditional, stoner, funeral etc).

'Crossraods' is a clever mix of symphonic melody into traditional doom powerchords, this is overlayed from samples from television programmes and keyboards.

Keeping with traditional funeral doom for 'The First Day' in terms of vocals and music, the only difference here is the addition of saxophone, which although not totally out of place (Think bands like Sigh and The Shining for example) does throw you a bit from the downbeat vibe.

A great Cello/Double Bass intro into some more sax playing that fits better for 'Furious Thoughts', the song has more voice samples and a simple guitar and drum backing.

Distorted vocals and doomy powerchords for the symphonic metal of 'The Midwife To Sorrows', some pretty epic guitarwork on this one as well.

'Thanathonaut' has a military style snare drum pattern and there is even a marching feet sample mixed in, the song soon starts to build with more sax and then keyboards, gives this quite a jazzy feel.
Half way through the song stops and we get a delicate piano solo, then a few vocals and then some full on drumming with a blistering sax crashing over the top.

Moody and atmospheric acoustic guitar and another symphonic backing help to make 'A Sad Scream' an nice little instrumental.

More television news samples about nuclear war lead 'Crushing The Old Empire' into a strange doom laden song with an almost oriental sound attempted on the keyboards.

Evil chorus sounds greet 'The Last Retreat' then one helluva riff kicks in, but instead of exploding into full on metal the sax comes in, reminiscent of Laura Logic's (X Ray Spex) style, more samples then start to appear with another more harmonious choral backing.

Now i was expecting 'Doom Over Valiria' to be well, err..Doom, but this is another delicate piano driven instrumental.

The last track is the longest on the album at 7 minutes, starts with more sax and more samples and just moves along at a happy pace, that is until the music stops and we get a whispered vocal in their native language over some piano playing, this then builds slowly with each instrument joining the mix note by note, adding more agression with the drums then some inspired guitar playing, then it stops and changes pace for some sax lead (almost) black metal to end.

Okay this is a weird album, more in keeping with slightly avant-garde/symphonic black metal that Doom, but thats a good thing, this is what i like to hear, original ideas and intresting music.

Rating 10/10
For fans of: Sigh, The Shining, Merzbow, Boris, Ulver, Therion, Nik Turners Sphynx

Necropoli - i (CD Review)

01.Ashes Of My Soul
02.Inner Space
03.A Step
04.Silence Awaits Me
05.Curriculum Vitae

Rodolfo Baroni (Guitar)
Dario Fabiani (Guitar/Bass/Synth/Vocals/Programming)
David Unsaved (Vocals)

Italian band born from the ashes of the funeral doom band Damnatio Memoriae in 2011, when founder guitarist Rodolfo Baroni met Fabiani Dario, with whom he immediately started composing for a new release, due to a good working harmony.

The duet try to go beyond the classical path of doom metal, defiling it with Drone, Death, Black and Downtempo influences, and aiming to express their music with no trivial.
They work together on the guitar lines, while Dario writes the bass and the drums lines, and part of the synth arrangement,they are also joined by Ennui vocalist David Unsaved.

Fairly straight forward opening song, 'Ashes Of My Soul' treads the funeral doom path with confidence.

Black Metal blasts beats make 'Inner Space' a bit more diverse, as does some of the chugging guitar riffs.

Very atmospheric start to 'A Step' and then those doom powerchords crash in only disturbed by some frantic double pedal work, a really haunting little keyboard riff runs throughout, slightly unnearving at times.

Up next is 17 minutes of 'Silence Awaits Me', melodic and heavy to start with, this epic is broken up by solem guitar solos over synth backgrounds and some intresting timing changes.

Finally 'Curriculum Vitae' a short 4 minutes to end with, weird vocal effects over simple synth patterns to make for a very disturbing ending.

Rating 10/10
For Fans Of: Celtic Frost, Pantheist, AHAB, Boris, Cephalic Carnage