Doom Over The World: Epic Doom Metal

Showing posts with label Epic Doom Metal. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Rituals Of The Oak - Hour Of Judgement

Rituals of the Oak may be young (they were only formed in 2008 and Hour of Judgement is their first and only album) and they come from Australia, but the band plays very old school traditional epic doom deeply steeped in the European tradition. Candlemass, but even more so Reverend Bizarre, immediately come to mind when the opening title track starts to plod.

Heavy, but rather stripped down, with guitars not overdistorted. The release, entitled Hour Of Judgement features 5 tracks, with some ranging in 5 mins to length and a couple being more than 12 minutes long, the band offers a challenging experience to the listener. On some occasions Rituals of the Oak display a sort of atonal divergence, where guitars and vocals tend to drift along the edges of non-parallel harmonies. If one aims to go up, the other is pointing downward. While unusual at first, this subtle dissonance does not divert attention as much upon multiple listens. The title track does not cause the female lead singer Sabine Hamad to take high notes or stretch herself, but in the drony Childhoods End, where “deadlight seems so far away” her voice inflections and modulations are the main attraction point.

Rituals of the Oak are not only about the molasses-slow monster chords and depressive melancholy. Drown the Wood in Blood showcases much steadier tempo, melody flowing through weaving riffs, hooky chorus and interesting percussion. The course of the song almost forces Sabine to elevate herself and assume leadership. At the same time, the band is also adept at space-rock, almost lullaby feeling with wirebrush on cymbals and jingly guitar in Standing in the House of Suffering. A pair of evident bass lines on this track also can’t be missed.

The closer The Spell of Doom at first embarks in the direction of the title track, but the half-way beginning outro uncorks a melody nobody will be able to soon forget. Rituals of the Oak has an uncanny ability to latch on to this captivating mind-penetrating piece of music and milk it for all its worth, slowly killing the song away, as they are doing it on The Spell of Doom and Drown the Wood in Blood.

An easy pickup for Reverend Bizarre and Solitude Aeturnus fans, being fronted by a female vocalist, Rituals of the Oak present another, more rare, interesting point in doom metal. ~ Metal reviews

Download

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Heathendom - Heathendom

This is the demo that eventually lead the band to a record deal, through which they released their debut LP last year.

Their brand and style of music hasn't changed much, with their music still being a combination of King Diamond-esque heavy metal and Solitude Aeturnus \ Candlemass style epic doom metal. This demo seems particularly influenced by the likes of Lief Edling with keyboards, acoustic guitars, chants and long interludes being the call of the day.The vocals are strong and the axe-work particularly good, especially on the last track.

Production wise, this album is great, almost as good as a studio recording. This however misses to leave as much of an impact on the listener as much as Neiscience did. If you're new to this band I'd recommend their debut LP. Only die hard fans of new school doom and this band ought to give it a try.

Give it a shot

Heathendom - Nescience

A level of skepticism is in order when dealing with power metal hybrids given the mixed track record of late, but when it comes to this album it would be best to just throw caution to the wind and let its epic doom and symphonic additives work their magic on you. Whether it’s something in the water, or just the will of Mt. Olympus, Greece has put forward some astonishingly good doom projects in the past couple years, and Heathendom has instantaneously become a personal favorite of mine.

The contents on here definitely point towards a slight tilt in favor of epic doom metal, achieving dark and haunting atmospheres very much in line with the Solitude Aeturnus model. The power metal elements mostly come in the form of epic riff construction in the mold of Manilla Road and Virgin Steele, though some occasional commonalities between their elder Greek forefathers Sarissa also pop up. The average tempo of the album is just a little too fast for an all out doom band, but definitely falls short of the common speed metal emulation common to the mainline power metal bands of Western Europe. The most intriguing part of the band is the vocal delivery, which establishes this oddly fitting blend of a Messiah Marcolin’s solemn and depressing baritone with King Diamond’s ghostly falsetto harmonies.

But in spite of all the interesting individual attributes brought together here, the sum proves to be much more than the parts, as everything from start to finish superimposes innovative songwriting with a perfect blend of atmosphere and riff work.
The theatrical atmosphere resonates throughout the album, from the King Diamond-esque into and subtle use of keyboards to the epic Candlemass-like process of building up tension within the song.

Indeed, Heathendom seems to exploit the use of metaphors and allegory quite a bit to convey their ideas, the imagery being especially powerful throughout. The pseudo-horror King Diamond influence and the sense of the ancient past from Candlemass in the lyrics are a perfect fit for the music, and the dramatic and emotive vocal performance ties in well with the songwriting overall, assembling a very cohesive recording here in the form of Nescience.

Recommended. Awesome album