Mournful Congregation

Atramentus – Stygian Review

Atramentus – Stygian Review

“Bearing the “gift” of immortality bestowed to him by the God’s sword, a lone knight trudges across the land, snow crunching beneath his feet with every heavy, weary step. After witnessing the death of the sun and thus all life on Earth perishing, he’s left with no choice but to travel the frozen lands alone, forcing him to recall painful memories of the loss of those he loved, forever trapped under miles upon miles of ice. Now that’s a hefty premise for a debut album, and it would take an equally hefty delivery to even give it a whiff of justice.” Sun No))).

Voidceremony – Entropic Reflections Continuum: Dimensions Unravel Review

Voidceremony – Entropic Reflections Continuum: Dimensions Unravel Review

“With heavyweights like Tomb Mold and Blood Incantation drowning in the love of the underground, proggy OSDM has never been so widely celebrated or practiced. If you’re a player in the death metal underground, that makes it an ideal time to switch focus from your nasty death metal band to your proggy death metal band and release your inscrutably titled debut album.” Void where prohibited.

Nightfell – A Sanity Deranged Review

Nightfell – A Sanity Deranged Review

“Synergy is such an interesting concept. Take two things, add them together, and occasionally the resulting whole is far greater than the sum of its parts. This effect is rendered even more powerful when the constituent ingredients are seemingly at odds. In the same way that peanut butter slathered all over a bacon cheeseburger elevates it to another level of awesomeness, the curious mixture of hardcore/crust journeyman Todd Burdette (Tragedy, His Hero is Gone, Warcry, and many more) with jack of all metals Tim Call (Aldebaran, Mournful Congregation, The Howling Wind, and many more) has produced Portland, Oregon’s dark metal monstrosity, Nightfell.” Frankenstein lives!

Yer Metal Is Olde: Morgion – Solinari

Yer Metal Is Olde: Morgion – Solinari

“Let’s face it, peeps; 1999 sucked for metal as a collective whole. Nü-metal sank its black-nail-polished talons into our favorite genre, with heroes trading speed and heft for JNCOs and wildly-colored dreadlocks while jumpingdafuckup over a DJ and 7-string guitars. And doom? Well, Anathema started their shift from doom metal darlings to prog rock just a year prior with Alternative 4. Paradise Lost dabbled with da Mode with One Second but went Full Gahan on Host. And My Dying Bride were roughly 34.788% themselves before righting the ship with The Light at the End of the World.” Wow, what the hell happened?

Shades of Deep Water – Death’s Threshold Review

Shades of Deep Water – Death’s Threshold Review

“It’s been a fair amount of time now since I first came across Death’s Threshold, the sophomore full-length for “J.H.’s” one-man funeral doom project, Shades of Deep Water, in the plentiful wastes that constitute the Promo Bin. I was astounded; funeral doom is a bit of a rarity, after all, and I would expect the vultures my coworkers to snatch up any errant scraps like, well, vultures. I hesitated only a moment before grabbing the album and absconding. After all, one does not simply listen to funeral doom.” Knee deep in doom.

Onirophagus – Endarkenment (Illumination Though Putrefaction) Review

Onirophagus – Endarkenment (Illumination Though Putrefaction) Review

“Think of an album as a multi-course meal; many of them give bite-sized but satisfying nutrient-packed portions that not only leave you satisfied, but definitely give you a craving for more. However, a scant few offer just meager tastes of what’s to come, oftentimes leaving the listener malnourished and starving, begging for just another bite. Finally, some bands give you monstrous servings, packed with calories, nutrients, and sometimes things you don’t want to ingest under any circumstances whatsoever, stuffing you full as you’re screaming, “No, please stop… I can’t eat anymore… I’m gonna explode…” and then they keep feeding you well past the point of explosion.” It’s waffer thin!

Ossuarium – Living Tomb Review

Ossuarium – Living Tomb Review

“I don’t know what it is about the Pacific Northwest that’s causing the citizens of that region of the U.S. of A. to pump out some rather phenomenal doom/death as of late. Perhaps it’s the perpetually rainy weather, but there’s certainly no shortage of slow, burbling, crawling-at-a-snail’s-pace death metal that rivals the greats from overseas. Portland’s Ossuarium turned quite a few heads with their 3-song demo, Calcified Trophies of Violence, and with their 20 Buck Spin debut, Living Tomb, they will no doubt turn even more.” Death by Northwest.

Convocation – Scars Across [Things You Might Have Missed 2018]

Convocation – Scars Across [Things You Might Have Missed 2018]

“In November of 2017, Finland’s Desolate Shrine released Deliverance From the Godless Void, an album so full of death and depth it would have been my AotY had it not released so late. While this year has furnished us with a selection of stirring doom albums, it still falls to Desolate Shrine mastermind L.L to concoct the most immersive and crushing of them all. Convocation is a project that balances L.L’s multi-instrumental talents with the vocals of M. Neuman of fellow Finns Dark Buddha Rising. The resulting debut, Scars Across, is a remorseless trek through tortured terrain that never departs from its impending pace.” Doom to the world.