Darkseed

Elderseer – Drown in the Shallowness Review

Elderseer – Drown in the Shallowness Review

“There seems to be a wellspring of gothic doom in the promo hopper in early 2023, and I’m okay with that. Coming off a heated love affair with Tribunal, I eagerly scooped up the debut by U.K. doomsters, Elderseer and hoped for a similar love connection. Their full-length debut adopts a style in the vein of My Dying Bride, Celestial Season, and early Paradise Lost, with long, winding songs telling tales of great misery and woe. And at a mammoth 68-minute runtime, Drown in the Shallowness delivers more than your fair share of sadcakes and grief biscuits.” Seer me MMXXIII.

Passage – As Darkness Comes Review

Passage – As Darkness Comes Review

Passage is likely not a name familiar to many outside of their native Montreal, Canada. Their self-titled debut was released in 2005 and they failed to follow it up in any way until now. Talk about a momentum killer, eh? Dubious marketing choices aside, the band traffics in melancholy doom death and they take many pages from the dog-eared tomes of Paradise Lost, Saturnus and My Dying Bride as they seek to crush your spirit under weighty riffs and heart-wrenching melodies.” Hello, darkness my olde friend.

Mirrored in Secrecy – Solitution Review

Mirrored in Secrecy – Solitution Review

“Some dips in the vastness of the AMG promo bin are like an invigorating plunge into a mountain lake. Others are like jumping in a rancid dumpster behind a greasy chicken joint during an August heatwave. Germany’s Mirrored in Secrecy managed to give me the weirdest surprise I’ve had in a while with their sophomore album Solitution, approximating the sensation of cannon-balling into a vat of Jello, Vaseline and hobo wine. It’s messy and disorienting, but not entirely unpleasant once you get use to the slippery viscosity.” Mix and bash.

Heavenwood – The Tarot of the Bohemians – Part I Review

Heavenwood – The Tarot of the Bohemians – Part I Review

Heavenwood charted a strange course over their 20 year career. Coming out of the Portuguese metal scene at the same time as Moonspell, the two bands shared a love of dark gothic rock mixed with elements of black and death metal. Their Diva debut played like Wolfheart filtered through Crematory and The Cure and though less heavy than Moonspell, they were almost as interesting. Then came a ten year hiatus and a radical shift of direction toward the kind of hybrid symphonic goth/black/death style as Septicflesh, Nightfall and to a lesser extent, Rotting Christ.” Pick a card (and a genre).

Nightfall – Astron Black and the Thirty Tyrants Review

Nightfall – Astron Black and the Thirty Tyrants Review

Now here’s a bird of a different color and what an odd duck it is! Astron Black and the Thirty Tyrants (a grand title) is the eighth platter from long running Greek black/death/doom/gothic/kitchensink act Nightfall. Along with their better known contemporaries Rotting Christ and Septic Flesh, these Spartans have evolved, devolved and transmogrified into different animals over their long existence and their current incarnation is very interesting indeed. Although they defy easy categorization, the focus lies somewhere between black and gothic metal but with traces of everything else tossed in with reckless abandon. The end product is at times confusing, pretty damn cool and not really like anything else out there right now.