"Doom metal is dead", that's what Reverend Bizarre told us back in 2007 but more than ten years after the final album of the Finns, the genre is still alive and kicking. Thank god! Here's a bunch of demos or extended plays released this year. Canada, Germany, the US and even Israel are represented in this special volume.
Enjoy!
Palmistry – Demo (2017) / 80%
Magickal Doom from Poutineland
Full
disclosure: I work with half of Palmistry as a gig promoter/booker in
Montréal and I also know his wife who's the second half.
My relationship with them has nothing to do with my
appreciation of their music. Doom metal is dead, anyway.
This
new project from Montréal unleashed their first demo back in July
and it's an insanely great first effort. Composed of a young couple,
Palmistry plays super catchy trad doom with a penchant for epic
moments and melodic leads. Obviously influenced by Candlemass, their
music goes beyond worship and has this special touch.
The
two songs are short (for doom, eh) affairs and considering it's a
demo, it's really well produced. The guitar is crisp and just plain
fun. The riffs are well composed, dynamic and has this quasi arabic
vibe. It feels like crusader doom! The solos on "Capharnaüm"
are subtle, soft and aren't unecessarily flashy. The vocals of the
feminine side of the duo are solid. They sound like an occult
incantation and they're pretty ballsy.
All in all, the
Palmistry demo shows a lot of potential and talent and I'm stoked to
be able to follow their development. It's great when the music made
by friends is actually good and you don't have to force yourself to
dig it!
Fvneral
Fvkk – The Lecherous Liturgies (2017) / 91%
Essential doom, epic as fvkkkkkk!
With
members from known to almost known German bands such as Ophis, here
comes Fvneral Fvkk and despite their silly name, they probably
released the best doom demo/EP of 2017. Their style is midway through
epic doom and traditional doom and they're already at the top of
their game. I mean, we're talking of veteran musicians and not simply
newcomers. The situation is similar to Dautha, the new Swedish band
formed by members of Griftegård, Scar Symmetry or Wardenclyffe.
Those
guys know what sound they're looking for and they have the experience
and skills to create it.
Fvneral
Fvkk comes from the tradition of tongue in cheek doom bands but even if their lyrics are blasphemous and somewhat fun, the riffs and
compositions are serious. They do evolve in the modern doom sound as well, the Warning/Pallbearer sound is present but the Germans bring an
added urgency and evilness to the formula. The production is crisp,
the guitars heavy as fuck and the vocals sombre and dark. The
songs are packed to the brim with desecrated doom and there's no wasted moments to be found here.
It's an essential
release for any doom fans and I don't know how they'll be able to top
it.
Make
sure to get the digital version with the 3 tracks since the bonus
song is also excellent.
Bridegeist
– Waste of Kings (2017) / 75%
Fresh and tight sword & sorcery doom
The
Wichita, Kansas
quartet doesn't waste any time in
establishing their identity. Their sound is huge, rough and
immensely heavy. The dual guitars makes 'em quite fun and punishing
and the harmonies are present underneath the heaviness. Just like
Khemmis, they do like to mix sludgey influences to their heavy/doom
and it's apparent in the use of semi harsh vocals used by Steven
Turner.
Their
metal is groovy, full of catchy manly riffs
and while it's mostly extroverted metal, it's easy to enjoy. I mean,
complex and "smart" metal is often shit and annoying. You
get what you ask for here, solid steel for twenty minutes.
Residing
in the same city as epic metal forefathers Manilla Road could had
been an ordeal but Bridegeist delivers their own take on sword and
sorcery by cranking the amps to the max and by being more aggressive
than a pack of hungry hounds.
Lavaborne
– Demo 2017 / 65%
Peculiar Midwest garage doom
With
the technology we have today, demos are a bit of a dying art. It's
totally possible to have a semi professional suburbian recording done
in your mom's basement nowadays. Unfortunately, that's not the case for this demo. Ok,
Lavaborne's production isn't that bad but I've heard better for doom
demos. Chris Latta's (also in Spirit Division) vocals are decent but
they're way too loud in the mix and it's hard to focus on anything
else. His deep voice almost
goes into spoken word territory at times and it adds a certain weird
charm to the band. The
drum machine is annoying
as it often is in metal.
The
songs are pretty good though, it's heavy/doom but it's peculiar and
doesn't really sound like what we could expect of the genre. It has a
wide array of influences ranging from grunge, hard rock to thrash.
While I can't really say that I'll go back to the demo, I can say
that it's interesting
P.S.:
I have conflicting feelings about the artwork. It looks like a
skateboard ad made in collaboration with a local nu-metal band. Sorry
Chris!
Still
Dead – Demo no. 1 (2017) /
67%
Still
Dead are the first Israeli doom band I've came across that aren't Orphaned
Land (who played doom for like twenty minutes anyway) and they're
not bad at all! The raw
production highlights the thick bass lines and the cavernous clean
vocals well and for a debut release, it's quite professional.
The songs are moderately lengthy and offer a lot
of repetitive riffs and atmosphere. It's a gloomy affair with Still
Dead as you could expect from their moniker.
The
thing is that the songwriting is mostly derivative and boring.
They're not really fresh, exciting or super heavy to compensate for
the lack of groundbreaking ideas (a direction many doom bands pick)
but it's worth checking out if you want to hear true doom coming from
an unusual location!
