Are you wearing a vest? Well, since Steel Druhm feels like he’s found the Holy Grail of doom metal, you best get to the tailor and get fitted for an old timey one. Actually, better make it two because this is big!!
Katatonia
The Chant – A Healing Place Review
Finland’s penchant for downy frowny metal is pretty well known. Sporting doom, melodeath and atmospheric black metal acts the like of Swallow the Sun, Insomnium and October Falls and being known for long, dark, vodka-soaked, winters speckled with knife fights and rumors of sunlight somewhere south, it’s actually a surprise that Finland hasn’t produced a lot of more music consisting of both downies and frownies. Indeed, post-metallers The Chant are really the first in their particular idiom. What is their particular idiom, you ask? Well, you know, the kind of music you write when the sun hasn’t risen for a three months: depressive post-rock.
Kontinuum – Earth Blood Magic Review
Kontinuum’s eclectic style threw me slightly off balance when the first track started up and truthfully my first thought was – is this an indie band, lost in a metal club improvising to not get the crap kicked out of them by a bunch of angry metal heads. Rest assured this is not the case, Earth Blood Magic is a crazy, kick-ass mix of what feels like a range of different influences that just somehow melts together as if by… dare I say it… magic?
Landforge – Servitude to Earth
Here’s an obscure but intriguing new release that’s been getting a great deal of playtime on the Steel Druhm turntables of late. Landforge is the musical project of one Stephan Carter. As the sole member and performer, he’s created a strange experimental journey, which he refers to as “post-rock/post-metal, with doom influences.” While I don’t quite know what “post-metal” means, Servitude to Earth is an interesting merger of black metal, doom and minimalist post-rock, borrowing elements from bands like Black Sun Aeon, Agalloch and Altar of Plagues.
Things You Might Have Missed 2011: Mythological Cold Towers – Immemorial
As under the radar and below the Earth’s crust as a band can get, Brazil’s doom/death stalwarts Mythological Cold Towers may have crafted an album capable of getting them some serious attention. Immemorial is their fourth release (available from Cyclone Empire) and like their previous works, it’s slow to mid-paced, atmospheric doom/death with a fair amount of melody and a smidgen of goth influence. The end result is like a cross between Swallow the Sun, Candlesmass, old Katatonia and really old Paradise Lost (some of this sounds like their Gothic album but with more finesse). If forced to describe their sound in a mere two words, those words would be “fucking” and “morose.” Though not the least bit cheery or hopeful, Immemorial is so well executed and laden with dark atmosphere, it ends up far more addicting than it should. In fact, it reminds me of Loss’s Despond. Both are crushingly doomy, heavy affairs that somehow stick in the head and demand repeat spins (this is way more melodic though). While not reinventing the death/doom wheel, Mythological Cold Towers manages to find that elusive sweet spot between heavy and subtly melodic and proceeds to milk it for all its worth. This is their best material by far and good enough for an honorable mention for 2011’s best, so Steel Druhm feels some shame for getting to it so late. If you were looking for quality doom/death in 2011 and missed this, you should also feel shame!
Dies Irae – Secret Veils of Passion Review
So, last year (also known as last week) we introduced this thing called the “Top Records We Wish We Could Unhear” and I’ve already gotten to my first nomination for the year of 2012. Dies Irae (no, not that one, the Mexican one) is apparently an old melodic death metal band that has remade itself in the image of “post-metal” (no, not that kind of post metal, the kind from 1999) and got themselves signed by Chaos Records, who otherwise have pretty good taste in bands. Secret Veils of Passion is, therefore, the first of the band’s new, updated versions of itself and it is a remarkable record to behold. But no, not that kind of remarkable. Think more like: I am remarking upon
The Man-Eating Tree – Harvest Review
I’m part of a small minority of metal fans that heard of Finland’s Fall of the Leafe and loved what they did. Although they began life as a black metal band, they eventually morphed into a unique type of progressive gothic metal and their 2005 Vantage album is one of my all time favorites. It had a special, moody atmosphere that I return to often (largely due to the strange but brilliant vocal work of Toumas Tuominen). Sadly, the Leafe called it a day in 2007 and their compelling style was silenced. However, from the acorn of the great Leafe arose The Man-Eating Tree, another interesting forest-themed entity with Tuominen on vocals and many of the same winning characteristics and flavor. Their 2010 album Vine was a pleasantly moody, typically Finnish exercise in melancholy gothic rock/metal and their sophomore followup Harvest is more of the same but even better. The songwriting is tighter, more focused and immediate, the moods are more pronounced and honest and the whole album clicks in a way that recalls the finer moments of Fall of the Leafe without plagiarizing their sound completely. Although most similar to Fall of the Leafe, there are also flashes of Sentenced (same drummer), lighter Opeth and late-period Katatonia. This is not a very heavy album and at times, the material barely has anything to do with metal. Even the most aggressive material here won’t rattle teeth or inspire a raised fist. The sound is more about darkened, somber moods, not exactly doom but clearly not happy either. Regardless, this is a great album and deserves to be heard by anyone who likes dark rock overflowing with mood and emotion.
Insomnium – One for Sorrow Review
Once considered the “other Amorphis” due to the style and sound of their well regarded debut In the Halls of Awaiting, Insomnium have since evolved into one of the premier melo-death units in operation. Along with fellow Fins Omnium Gatherum, they’ve been steadfastly keeping the melo-death banner flying and the style alive and viable. In fact, no one is doing this style better, as One for Sorrow and Omnium Gatherum’s ginormous New World Shadows amply demonstrate. Both albums employ hyper-melodic guitar-work alongside sub-woofer blowing death vocals and both shroud everything with the melancholy and sadness that seems to seep from the very ground of Finland. Over the course of four albums, Insomnium has churned out consistently high quality melo-death of this nature with very few stylistic shifts or changes. This has, at times, made their material feel a bit samey and can give the impression of roaming over well worn ground. While this was never a big issue for me personally, those concerns are still present here as they continue to hone their tried-and-true sound to a razor edge. Insomnium gives you ten new tracks of excellently melodic death that incorporates doom and elements of old Amorphis, classic In Flames, Brave Murder Day era Katatonia and Noumena. While there are no surprises, this is some great, emotionally powerful music and exactly the kind of listening material to stockpile as we head into the cold gloom of winter.
Ghost Brigade – Until Fear No Longer Defines Us
Another depressive, bleak band from Finland? What a surprise! Although they don’t seem to a band on everyone’s lips yet, Ghost Brigade have staked out their own little corner in the doom rock genre. Their first two albums were entertaining platters of doomy metal with a notable rock/post-rock edge and nods to death metal. Some lauded 2009’s Isolation Songs as a genre defining classic. I wouldn’t go quite that far but it had some great moments of downcast unhappiness. Along comes Until Fear No Longer Defines Us and they’ve really outdone themselves and reached a whole new level. Featuring a more laid back (but still highly morose) sound, Ghost Brigade drifts away from the heavier aspects of their sound and toward a more moody, rock-based style. Now, these guys were never what I would call knuckle smashing heavy to begin with. Sure they would toss in some deathy snarls and some heavy riffing but the focus was always on sullen, despondent vibes with enough rock sensibility to keep things moving. That hasn’t changed here, just reached a more effective, accessible phase. At times they sound similar to recent Katatonia, Rapture and the less deathy moments of Swallow the Sun. Does it work? Absolutely it does and most of Until is a testament to what quality songwriting will do for a band.
Draconian – A Rose for the Apocalypse Review
It’s Angry Metal Confession time kiddies. Steel Druhm has many things he should confess but for now, lets focus on aspects of the metal scene I’ve grown weary of. First up has to be symphonic black metal. Its been done, overdone, redone and ultimately, undone. Another very overused gimmick is beauty and the beast vocals (death metal vox paired with soaring, usually operatic, female vocals). Since Theatre of Tragedy came out with Velvet Darkness They Fear, every gothic metal band under the moon tried their hand at the style and while it can be amazing, it’s been overblown in a major way. Because of the staleness in this approach, only the very best practitioners leave any impression on me. Draconian is one such expert unit and while I liked their early material, I LOVED their 2008 release Turning Seasons Within. That opus managed to balance heavy doom with ethereal gothic sensibilties and they made the beauty and beast approach work magnificently. Now with A Rose for the Apocalypse, these Swedish glumsters have done it yet again and offer a top quality gothic-doom/death album brimming with emotion, intensity and dark atmosphere. Its good enough to make me rethink my position on the entire paradigm and its a real slobberknocker of a metal album.
