Few people master the sound of the old school as good as Paul Chain does. He clearly has a lot of experimental ideas in quite a few of his releases. But as this release shows, he also has the wisdom to put those ideas away for a while, for the sole sake of simply creating good music. And while he does have some very good experimental ideas, it's his talent for making good music overall that has granted him the fanbase that he has. Now, I'm not saying that he has no original elements in his music at all. In fact, I think it's unbearable for this man to create any music without at least a hint of fascinating originality in it. 'Life And Death' just has very strong ties to the doom rock roots.
I consider this to be one of Mr. Chain's best albums for playing air guitar to. The riffage is often doom rock, but equally often its tracks focus on other genres such as blues rock and folk rock. I know many of you would think "Oh shit! That's the music that they play at the old house". Well. I have to say that this is nothing like anything ever made by Bob Dylan, Van Morrison or Grateful Dead. All though the music can be quite light at times, my own humble opinion states that Paul is a far better songwriter than any of those guys. I should not forget to mention the hard rock influences as they are also quite clearly present.
I know that this is perhaps not what people are looking for when they are buying a Paul Chain record, so you have now been warned. I still do recommend the album to those who don't mind those genres being mixed into the music, however. There are of course other albums that are more vital to a doom rock fan, but if you do get your hands on this one, give it a chance. It just might surprise you.
Antichrist Cemetary
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