“Remember Guitar Hero? Yes, I’m aware it’s 2015, but reach back into the memory vaults for just a second. Somewhere on the screen there’s a crowd pleasure meter that dynamically reacted to how well your performance is going. If you were good, it would stay in green. If you were really bad, it would stay in red, teetering on the edge of total audience disengagement. Being mediocre kept you squarely in yellow.” Are you ready to take on Guitar Hero’s doom edition? Cave of Swimmers think they are.
“This was a bear of an album to review. Let me elaborate a bit for clarification… it’s not just because Italy’s Mourning Mist are a new band with precious little background besides having bassist/vocalist Kvasir (also of Profezia and Abhor) in their ranks, as well as a violinist. Hell, violins in metal ain’t nothing new, right?” Not at all, but when will someone incorporate some balalaika?
“There was a huge weight on Alunah’s shoulders at the advent of their career. Hailing from Birmingham, the illustrious home to heavy metal, it would have been all to easy to fly under the radar. Fortunately, their début captivated doomsters with its crushing riffs and entrancing female vocals, and the follow-up White Hoarhound miraculously eluded the sophomore slump by boldly expanding their sound to epic levels and progressing their song-writing prowess. Now, Awakening The Forest has arrived and blows them out of the water.” The year of quality doom keeps a rolling!
“Doomy stoner metal seems to be creating a lot of buzz in the metal scene at the moment, so what better time than now for Season of Mist to re-release the back catalogue of self-proclaimed “weed metal” band Weedeater? Sixteen Tons was originally released in a cloud of smoke in 2002 via Crucial Blast, and has since gone out of print.” We hate when stuff goes out of print, so here’s an alert that this album is back.
“In a month where Pallbearer dropped an irresistible doom monstrosity on us, an unheralded act is quietly sneaking out a release that could easily slip through the cracks and escape notice unfairly. The Order of Israfel is a project put together by Tom Sutton (Church of Misery) and Patrik Andersson Winberg (Doomdogs) and their Wisdom debut is a surprisingly addictive fusion of classic Sabbathian doom, 70s hard rock, The Obsessed and the Cathedral school of mega heavy riffs.” Hey, Pallbearer isn’t the only doom crew out there. Sheesh!
“Joy takes “retro” seriously. I’m sure most of our readers are familiar with the morass of “retro” groups that exclusively write music with a deaf ear to everything recorded after a particular golden time in the history of heavy metal, but this San Diego power trio set back the clock to a time pre-dating the genre entirely, recalling when Black Sabbath was a blues band and “heavy metal” existed only as a Steppenwolf lyric.” Set the machine for 1 B.S.D. (before Steel Druhm).
“At the crossroads of retro/occult metal, doom and throwback vest metal, sits Castle like some sort of big…castle. These San Francisco rockers exploded onto the doom scene with their punchy In Witch Order début and immediately carved a niche for themselves among contemporaries like Jex Thoth and Occultation. Blacklands took things to the next level by incorporating strains of epic metal and black metal riffery and the result was quite heady, unpredictable and fun. Now we get Under Siege, which once again rejiggers the Castle sound as the band evolves and matures with grace and dignity.” Have you heard these guys yet? If not, Steel Druhm thinks less of you.
“‘There.’ That one word can describe a place of interest. It could be a home you grew up in, a pub you frequent, or a restaurant you and your family or friends enjoy eating at. ‘There’ can also be used as a point of indication in a role, such as ‘I was there to purchase cat food while making evil grimaces and throwing up invisible oranges at the cashier lady.’ What is the point of all this, you may ask?” Oh shit, ain’t that a cliffhanger!?
“Well, that cover and the title pretty much say it all. Autopsy is back again rather soon after last year’s The Headless Ritual, and they’re up to their usual sick, crusty, gore-soaked death metal shenanigans. Rocking their old school style of death mixed with doom and horror movies shtick, these shameless fiends show no interest in evolving and if anything, they’re actually devolving further into a grisly stew of sticky unpleasantness. No surprises await the Autopsy fan, just more reliably unhinged sonic mayhem that approximates being on a condemned rollercoaster with zombies, serial killers and hostile ex-girlfriends.” Don the gore-gore boots and join the kickline of the dead, because Autopsy is back to bloody the waters.
“When last we checked in on Pilgrim, they were really fucking slow! Even by doom standards, these guys were the car in the right lane with flashers on and a “Wide Load” sign on the bumper. That’s because they specialize in unflinchingly minimalist, old school Sabbath riffs slowed down to a root’s pace, lightly seasoned with a hint of psychedelic fairy dust. Their Misery Wizard debut was heavily influenced by Reverend Bizarre and Cathedral and weighed down with insanely long, drawn out doom yarns so heavy, they made you feel like a Buick was parked on your chest. This presented an arduous test to one’s attention span, despite the overall quality of the riffs and writing.” Ready for some doom that’s slower than your grandma? Quick, it’s very slowly getting away!
