Warning

Roadburn 2017 Live Review

By GardensTale on May 1, 2017 in 2017, Blog Posts, Live Reviews, 45 comments

“Every year, something special takes place in my hometown of Tilburg, The Netherlands: the festival of Roadburn. Roadburn isn’t like your average festival. There’s no marquees, no fields of green devolving into mud, and no crowds the size of small towns worshiping the biggest bands. Instead, thousands of people dressed in black gather from every corner of the continent, and some from other continents, to see over 100 doom, stoner and other kinds of acts whose success lies almost entirely in the underground.” Welcome to the dope show.

Clouds – Departe Review

By Steel Druhm on November 16, 2016 in 2016, Doom Metal, International Metal, Reviews, Self-released, 47 comments

“Sometimes a piece of music is entirely about a single, specific feeling, be it rage, joy or sadness. Departe, the second album by atmospheric post-doom super group Clouds, is definitely about the latter, and it attempts to drown the listener in a vast sea of chilling, cloying melancholy without offering the slightest hint of hope or beam of light. Formed by members of The 11th Hour, Eye of Solitude, Rapture, Barren Earth and Shape of Despair, the line up reads like doom royalty and their vast experience helps make this one of the bleakest, most depressive listens of this year or any other.” Got something in your eye? You’re about to.

40 Watt Sun – Wider than the Sky Review

By Grymm on October 26, 2016 in 2016, British Metal, Doom Metal, Not Metal, Radiance Records, Reviews, Rock, Doom Metal, Not Metal, 25 comments

The world became a much darker place in 2009 when UK doom upstarts Warning disbanded after only two albums. When word got out that guitarist and vocalist Patrick Walker would form a new project called 40 Watt Sun with fellow Warning bandmate Christian Leitch, doomsters the world over panted with anticipation. What many people hoped would be a continuation of the morose path constructed by Warning’s farewell album, 2006’s criminally underrated Watching from a Distance, instead were met with softer, but no less intense, waters with The Inside Room. Five years and several label woes later, the band returns with their self-released second album, Wider than the Sky.” Watch the skies (from a distance).

Caïna – Setter of Unseen Snares Review

By Madam X on January 23, 2015 in 2015, Black Metal, Church of Fuck, English Metal, Post-metal, Post-Rock, Reviews, Skin & Bones Records, Black Metal, Post-Metal, 27 comments

“Caïna certainly aren’t your typical black metal band, they’re not Norwegian, Swedish, American or French as you would expect. In fact, Caïna is the labor of heartache by Englishman Andrew Curtis-Brignell and his band’s discography is all over the map.” Constantly changing and mutating, this act is very hard to pin down. But Madam X has many pins and a will to win.

Cardinals Folly – Our Cult Continues! Review

By Jean-Luc Ricard on August 10, 2014 in 2014, Doom Metal, Finnish Metal, Reviews, Shadow Kingdom Records, Doom Metal, 10 comments

“I’ve always found doom to be a particularly beguiling style of heavy metal. I’m not sure any other subgenre is able to evoke such a broad range of emotions, from sheer suicidal despair to fist-pumping, booty shaking euphoria. Or perhaps I have a pathologically shaky booty (though if you don’t at least feel a twitch in your hips when listening to Sleep’s Holy Mountain then I don’t trust you as a human being).” Ready from some odd doom metal? Jean-Luc Ricard joins AMG’s probationary squad to tell us of Cardinals Folly and their interesting approach to the typical slow and low.

Doom:VS – Earthless Review

By Steel Druhm on May 9, 2014 in 2014, Death Metal, Doom Metal, Reviews, Solitude Productions, Swedish Metal, Death Metal, Doom Metal, 9 comments

“Doom:VS is a one man act with a pretty spotty record of productivity, but man, when they drop an album, it really drops hard! The brainchild of Johan Ericson (Draconian), Doom:VS released back to back gobstoppers of morose doom/death with 2006s Aeternum Vale and 2008s Dead Words Speak and both stand among the genre’s very best. Then, the band vanished from the mortal coil and seemed to be consigned to history. Without much warning, they’ve made a huge return with Earthless and now Johan is joined by Thomas Akim Gronbeak Jensen (Saturnus), who handles all the death roars.” Looking for something to really bring you down? Steel Druhm has just the pill for that.

Pallbearer – Sorrow and Extinction Review

By Steel Druhm on February 15, 2012 in 2012, 4.0, American Metal, Doom Metal, Profound Lore Records, Reviews, Doom Metal, 7 comments

My oh my, doom is getting more and more epic (read as long-winded) and it seems the genre is increasingly stricken with chronic Metallica-itis (inability to edit or cull songs). With bands such as Pilgrim and Swallow the Sun releasing albums loaded down with mega-long, droning numbers, attention spans everywhere are being tested and found wanting.

Loss – Despond Review

By Steel Druhm on June 3, 2011 in 2011, 4.0, American Metal, Death Metal, Doom Metal, Profound Lore Records, Reviews, Death Metal, Doom Metal, 4 comments

Ever felt the need to sit amidst the shadows and brood darkly over lost loves, personal failures, lack of objectivity in music reviews and other existential mumbo jumbo? If so, I may have the perfect musical accompaniment for your days of shoegaze. Despond, the debut from Tennessee’s Loss, is one mammoth slab of remorseful, gloomy funeral doom/death that will harsh anyone’s mellow and kill any and all buzz. It’s snail paced, ponderous and crushingly heavy in that way only real doom can be. On the highway of metal music, this thing has its hazard lights flashing and moves slower than a senior citizen with cataracts and a bum hip. Now, I’m well aware that funeral doom isn’t for everyone. I myself rarely find the style compelling enough to sit through an album’s worth regardless of how well the band executes. For that very reason I was surprised by the impact Despond had on me. Not only did I enjoy listening to the entirety of Loss’s mortuary muzak, but I kept going back for more and ultimately, it left me blown away. That either means they have something truly special going on or I have a brain tumor pressing on my music appreciation lobe. Either way, this is an weirdly addictive album full of gloom and despair with some unbelievably powerful emotions and atmosphere to it.