Womb - 1995 - Demo

Slightly sludgy, Womb has that early death/doom sound, typically associated with bands such as Winter and diSEMBOWELMENT. It should also be noted, that they used no guitars, opting for two bassists, instead.

Down.

Winter Of Discontent - 1995 - Demo

Heavy as fuck doom in the vein of diSEMBOWELMENT from US.

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Symphony of Grief - Discography

Extremely slow and heavy doom/death in the vein of diSEMBOWELMENT. The music is extremely filthy and the tracks often start out with a short, but intense burst of death metal. Interresting for all fans of extreme doom. The lyrics include both occult stuff and gore. For fans of Necro Schizma.


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Church of Misery (USA) - Sorrows of the Moon

Side project of Stevo from Impetigo. Changed name to Insomnia.

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Children Of Doom - Ride Over The Green Valley

(Tape limited to 250 copies)

Children Of Doom sound a little inexperienced on this demo but that also means that have room to grow, that points to a really exciting future in the world of Doom because this is a great demo. It has a couple of flaws, the sound is not great as i had to really crank up the stereo to get a good fix on the music. The first thing you will noticed is the guitar work which has a St.Vitus meets The Obsessed vibe about it and then its the vocals. Is this dude Glenn Danzig or what, that is not a complaint by the way but he is the first singer you will think of when you hear this dude. The band has a distinctly 80's feel to them and the songs are extremely well played, the lyrics are also really good. Songs about alcohol and chicks has always worked for me but there is more to them than just that. Musically they play for the most part "text book doom" with no real surprises but they have a obvious love for Traditional Doom Metal and that comes out in the songs. Sometimes you can just tell when a band is genuine about what they do and Children Of Doom are one of those bands.Pay special attention to "Hell's On Wheels" and "Hangover" which are both fine tracks of Doom. Worth keeping a eye on this band when a full length album finally surfaces. ~ Doom Mantia

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Black Manta - Black Manta

This one here is a HEAVY fucker of a demo: "Demo 2001" CD-R by Black Manta from the Maryland abyss (Pentagram, Unorthodox/Asylum and tons of others should be known from that area!). Totally crushing Heavy Rock / Doom that is so thick and heavy (thanx to the production: recorded in the famous Hit&Run studios), I seldom heard similar power!!

The band call themselves BOMB ROCK. Not surprised.

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Black Manta - Fuck Them All But Six

Fucking heavy Maryland doom band influenced by Sabbath and Washington D.C.-area doom legends such as Pentagram and Internal Void. Released a series of self-financed demos, follow by the 2004 album “Fuck them all but six” on psycheDOOMelic records. The track “Days of Yore” was featured in the “Doom Capital.

This is basically a very enjoyable stoner doom EP, and is infact laced with gruff vocals, amazingly catchy riffs and a very very very very downtuned guitar coupled with amps turned to max volume. You'll love it.

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Pale Divine - Cemetary Earth

Again Pale Divine delivers us a fine work of art. For all those who thought the 70s psychedelic rock and the proto doom had vanished, you were wrong. Pale Divine is back and shows us how it really has to be done.

This is Pale Divines third release, and the band has really progressed from their first album, where some of the songwriting was lacking. Though with this new album the singing, riffs, and writing all mesh together to create a warm uplifting doom album. It has the timeless doom riffing in the vein of Sabbath, Pentagram, and Vitus, but they keep their own sound by mixing in their own ideas on how the songs should be put together. The songs range lengths range from 5 minutes to about 10 on their epic title track.

All the aspects that make a perfect proto-doom album are present here, heartfelt and well executed. The most important factor here is that it's doomy. It trudges along at a melancholic pace with a booming bottom end and almost tangible fuzz. Sorrowful riffs and mournful leads carry you through on a funeral march of Sabbathian quality. The trademark guitar work of Klein and Diener is out in full force with '(I Alone) The Traveller' serving as the perfect example. Floating in via harmonious distortion it twists and turns through seamless solos, all supported by the gruff tones of Diener. 'Soul Searching' showcases the duo's groovier sensibilities and the typical lengthy title track is Doom 101.

Another Pale Divine album, another slab of doomy perfection. Next time you're about to spin Pentagram's self titled or stick on Holy Mountain for the 1000th time, given Cemetery Earth a try (and track down Thunder Perfect Mind while you're at it).

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Pale Divine - Eternity Revealed

Incorporating throwback, seventies-style production (for that primo Sabbath vibe), well-thought out songwriting and a propensity for making the most of upfront, blues-rock thunder, Pale Divine conjures up a noteworthy display of doom on “Eternity Revealed.”

Frontman Greg Diener handles both the guitar and vocal duties for this trio, spitting out bluesy metal licks that a particularly foreboding atmosphere. As a vocalist, Diener has a nice range and puts a bit of balls into his talented, melodic vocalizations, especially during the bridge “Sins Of The Fallen” which turns from shimmering chords and rolling polyrhythms to a dirty black death march that will satisfy fans of Danzig and Trouble alike. When the band really throws it down during the track’s solo section, present-day Corrosion Of Conformity springs to mind as a point of reference. The loose, wah-fueled jam that ensues shows that above all, Pale Divine knows how to get deeply into a bottom-heavy jam without becoming stuck in the mud.

A similar doom grunge is distinctive during the track ‘Martyrdom’, as bassist Jim Corl and drummer Darin McCloskey team up for a Zeppelin-inspired backbeat and Diener lets a fretboard-torching solo loose. During other standouts like ‘Crimson Tears’ and ‘Serpents Path’, Pale Divine strives toward an apocalyptic sort of rock that is unpolished and unforgiving. A gloomy, quite competent rendition of Candlemass’ ‘Solitude’ shows this band is not afraid to wear its influences on its sleeve. As a bluesy jam with an almost Hendrix-like solo leads to a flurry of arpeggios over top the famous dirge on the track’s main riff, Diener truly shines as a guitarist. As the verse reprises, the roots of this group’s influence grows to be even more apparent.

Although this band may just get lumped in with the sea of so-called “stoner” acts on the scene today, such a tag might be a disservice as the majority of the music made by Pale Divine is decidedly more metal than most who wear that mark. The band redirects Sabbath sounds into a new realm focused on shredding jam sequences (at times, Diener’s axework is not far removed from that of Ted Nugent in his glory days) and roaring, fuzzy melodies that are choice enough to satisfy any fan of Cathedral, St. Vitus, Kinghorse, and any of the bands mentioned above.

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Pale Divine - Thunder Perfect Mind

PsycheDOOMelic is probably the best current label for doom metal, and Pale Divine is a great example of the quality of their output. Pale Divine play a style of doom metal firmly rooted in the 70s and 80s, although they don't necessarily mimick one band in particular so it's difficult to compare them to anybody. Vocalist Greg Diener sounds quite a bit like Scott Reagers or Bobby Liebling or one of those others 80s doomy vocalists that did a good job of imitating Ozzy whilst disregardeing the Birmingham accent. He has a very powerful voice and is crucial to the band's sound, and songs like Dark Knight wouldn't be the same with Diener's lungs.

As for the actual songwriting, I'm reminded of different bands at different points of the album, yet the whole disc still flows consistantly and doesn't really sound mixed up, the band combines their influences well into a sort of doom pot pourri. Opener 'Amplified' is pure, unadultered rock and roll and reminds me more of Bishop than any gloomy doom metal band, even though it still has that deep, low sound to it. However, 'Gods Monsters and Men' actually has a Kyuss (BftRS-era) feel to it, whilst 'Dark Knight' has a strong epic vibe that reminds me of Manilla Road more than anybody else (especially in the fantastic vocal arrangements). Then we have the short, string-picked instrumental 'Dream Flower' that would sound right at home on Sabbath's Masters of Reality in place of Embryo or Orchid, and then John Klein's lead guitar reminds me of some really early bluesy metal, like Pentagram or even Blue Cheer (in tone and delivery).

You might expect the band to sound all over the place, but that isn't the case. This album flows nicely, one superbly well-written song after the other, and the influences are all sewn in well. The PsycheDOOMelic rerelease has two live bonus tracks, and they're both played so perfectly that you can tell this band has rehearsed their asses off. A very tight performance, which tells me two things. One, this band must be excellent live, so if you live in or around Pennsylvania then you should definitely be sure to go to a Pale Divine show, I can guarantee an excellent performance. And two, this being Pale Divine's first album, I'm sure they could have only improved on their later releases, so along with 'Thunder Perfect Mind' I would also recommend checking out their subsequent albums, any real doomheads should not be missing any Pale Divine in their collection.

Oh, and did I mention that Bobby Liebling appears on the last 2 tracks ? :)

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Eggnogg - III

EGGNOGG is a hard rock/sludge band from the upstate New York area. Having gone through several names/stages of music already, Eggnogg has matured into a heavy-hitting sludge-rock group of epic proportions. This year, they recorded the first album: simply titled "The Three". The album was officially released on October 31, 2009. With the heavy drumming, back-breaking riffs recognizable deep, growling vocals, Eggnogg has created a heaviness no band from the stoner scene has truly achieved since Electric Wizard's "Dopethrone."

As already mentioned the band's primary influence is Electric Wizard, but the other influences lie as a cross between 70's hard rock, Kyuss, Alice In Chains, Black Sabbath and Pink Floyd.

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Abdullah - Cut The Artery

Taken from the band's MySpace -

"Lost album and ep available for free download. This material was written in a transitional phase of the band between the years of 2005-2007. it is pretty much a complete departure from the stoner/alternative/doom metal we were theretofore known for. the quality of some of the tracks is dubious as a few were emailed back and forth between band members and different continents. the line-up at this point was:

Jeff Shirilla: drums, vocals, some guitars, synth
Alan Seibert: lead guitars
Aaron Dallison: guitars
Ed Stephens: bass

Josh Adkins and John Stepp played drums and guitars respectively on "dead babies" and Queenie contributed vocals and lyrics to "lost."

This material was just taking up space on a hard drive doing no one any good so i decided to share it. enjoy/hate/ignore!"

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Goatlord - Distorted Birth: The Demos

Cd 1
· "Sodomize the Goat" '88 demo.

CD 2
· Demo '87 (Tracks 1-4)
· Promo '91 (Tracks 5-6)

"'Distorted Birth: The Demos' collects the early history of a band that would mark their grounds with a different approach than some other groups. Most people I would imagine would like their heart to constantly be jerked and blood to flow at an accelerated rate from their extreme metal material. Goatlord slows things down on their demos, but still delivers an atmosphere that is hard to rival even with the lacking sound quality here. With this collection Goatlord's evolution shows, coming out with the best material being 'Sodomize the Goat' and the promo from '91. And the '87 demo being a trial run of what was to come from the band. What's impressive is that the amount of music put on their '88 demo is 12 tracks and clocked at over an hour, considering most demos are 3 to 5 tracks and only typically deliver enough to get a glimpse of the band. I would definitely recommend this to someone who doesn't mind harsher production and has an appetite for some atmospheric blackened death and doom." ~ MA

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Green & Wood - Green & Wood

Green And Wood, a band that came out of nowhere for me but are actually from LA have their self titled album out on Cyclopean Records.This power trio plays a heavy blend of Sabbath, Sleep, Blue Cheer and Pentagram influenced Doom with traces of hard rock and stoner doom too. The plus side though is they are so good at doing it that its also a very enjoyable romp through everything from early 70's Heavy Prog, Blues Rock to modern day Stoner doom. The band is capable of writing great songs with cool arrangements and if they continue to find their own niche in songwriting. If you love Stoner Doom with a 70's edge and you are a fan of Witchcraft you will eat this one up.

Here ya go

And before November's Doom....

... lay the brickwork for a real good death doom band. Laceration. Paul Kuhr III, Steve Nicholson and Jim Dobleski who are now know better known in cult circles for their work in November's Doom formed first under the name of Laceraion. They made 3 releases under this name. 2 demos (Scabs and The Way of All Flesh) and a sole EP (Ripping Avulsion). Unsurprisingly they released this with Gutted Records, known in cult circles for releasing other stuff such as Symphony Of Grief etc.



Everything you hear and see about the band, the name, the release titles and the band pic till now makes you believe that they played doom death the brutal way, but in fact they played some of the most beautiful, well crafted and emotional filled death doom metal I've ever heard, with slow prodding riffs, deep growled vocals, a think guitar tone, at times mixed with the acoustic guitars. Unlike a lot of other Death Doom bands, Laceration focus more on creating a very depressive atmosphere, and they do this very well.



Laceration - Scabs (Demo)



Laceration - Ripping Avulsion EP

Haarp - 2009 EP

How rarely it happens, that you stumble across a picture of the band that describes it's music rather than being just a picture. Haarp, a band similar to NOLA in some ways released, the 2009 E.P., with the same lineup, has a harsher guitar sound and adds the bass guitar fuzz more typical of the genre, as well as nearly doubles the track times as compared to their demo. The shortest track being over seven minutes, and the album feels more like a a mental asylum, a man, the epitome the insanity locked in a cage, superbly angry and unable to control it, trying to scream his lungs out at the desperation and sheer unimaginable hate for the world and the lives of the people which it supports, rather than a collection of songs.
The tracks have a lot of variations, sometimes sounding like a fuzzed out stoner record, to a mellow and moody section to the lost tracks of some Bay Area Thrash band. The compositional skills have increased manifold on this release, as compared to the one 2 years back. This band will go somewhere in it's life, and they seem to have found the way.

Mons Sermo Incendia, is simply superb.

Haarp - Demo

Haarp blends the tortoise-tempo molasses chugging onslaught of traditional sludge metal with bard-like tale telling, mature harmonic composition, and low, guttural vocals that would impress even today's dethcore generation. Though somewhat new to the scene the band already boasts supporting slots on a tour with Down and The Melvins. While most sludge metal bands utilize introspective lyrics focused on addiction, suicide, and self-loathing, Haarp are epic storytellers, weaving elaborate tales of gods and monsters. The southern pentatonic bends and blue notes that typified the genre ten years ago have been replaced with straight-rhythm, dissonant riffs that have more in common with Superjoint's Use Once and Destroy than Eyehategod's Southern Discomfort. It's still very slow music, but one can see that many metal genres gave birth to Haarp. The recording quality is another matter of differentiation. Don't get me wrong; you can still feel the sticky floor of a New Orleans barroom when you listen to it (like most sludge records), but unlike many of their contemporaries, Haarp invested in overall mixes that are clear and crisp, with veteran New Orleans engineer Bruce Barielle mastering the stuff.

The 2007 E.P/ Demo begins with guitar feedback and an unedited drum count-in like many sludge records, but opts for the cleaner bass guitar sound found in more traditional metal genres, rather than the fuzz-saturated bass sound of many stoner and sludge recordings. The first track, "Soothsayer" begins slow as expected but builds to a nice, up-tempo groove reminiscent of stoner bands like C.O.C. and St. Vitus. The riffs in "Blackhand" bring to mind a slow motion murder scene from a horror movie. "Fog Cutter" is an interesting track, with two guitar solos that could not be more different from one another in style, building into a section that is moody, mature, and melodic. The main tempo of the song generates that wonderful urge to slowly nod the head like a pump jack on an oil pad, and just when you think they're going to speed it up they run the slow riff for another 40 seconds. "Synthetic Sense" feels like it could be a newly-discovered track left over from a Crowbar or Acid Bath session, so much so that I kept instinctively expecting Dax Riggs to make a vocal appearance. The dynamic tempo changes of "Dissemination" register very much like a non-sludge record, reminding me more of Gojira or Mastodon, and the track definitely supports Haarp's diversity of influence." ~ (directmetalmusic.com)

Dowbload

Shroud Eater - Demo 2009

This is a 3 piece band that has released it's first release, a demo this year. With a female handling the vocal duties, this band plays sludge, the down-tuned way mixing the grooves of stoner metal, to the in your face style attitude and vocals of punk rock and elements of early 90's alternative rock.
They sound really original, and unconventional with this 3 track demo lasting a little less than 14 minutes with all tracks lasting near, and around the 4:30 minute range.
They sure have the talent, but not much can be said just by listening to 3 tracks by a band. This not groundbreaking or extra ordinary but it bring a breath of freash air, and is enjoyable. Rumor has it, they plan to release their debut next year, and I definitely suggest you look forward to it.

Mediaphyre

Revelation - For The Sake Of No One

The sixth and latest release by the band.

The creativity of this band is amazing. These are the same guys that belong to the band Against Nature, another doom band that is known for its prolific catalogue, due to the fact that releasing 2 - albums a year isn't that much of a surprise when it's coming from them. And to top it all off, the band never seems to get monotonous and they do not do the same thing again and again. Whatever you get by the band, there is something new as no 2 records sound same.

So it's not a surprise that this year's release by Revelation is a lot different from last year's gem of an album, "Release.". This album, named For The Sake Of No One is a very laid back doom metal record,with long instrumental sections, that has some stoner influences taken from the likes of Blood Farmers. The progressive elements remain but minimal in quantity. It's neither the band's best, nor is it one of the top records of this year. What it is, is a good and entertaining release by an excellent band, that is capable of doing better. Looking forward to more from them.

For The Sake Of No One

Blood Farmers - Blood Farmers

"Riffing doom influenced by B-Movie horror and 70s hardrock. Blood Farmers combines elements of St. Vitus, Sabbath, and Metallica for a unique sound. The vocals are rather harsh, and the tunes are pounding."

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