12. CARL GENE “Feel EP”
Under the moniker of Naked, last year Baltimore’s Carl Gene
dropped one of those scarce albums that change your perspective in music and,
hopefully in life as well. Believe in me, I’ve been listening to the most
depressive, oppressive and melancholic music for more than a decade, and last
year Naked’s “Hopeless” topped as the most distressing music I’ve ever heard. With
the slogan “offensively boring music”, Naked, makes most of the funeral doom
metal and depressive black metal songs sound like heavy versions of REM’s “Shiny
Happy People”. Carl Gene changed the name of his project to
Naked Cult in late 2015 as far as I remember, to, finally, start putting out
music under his own name in this 2016. He now offers the “Feel EP”, without
acute modifications to his characteristic sound (which are good news for me).
Carl Gene just stands with his guitar and a nice
number of pedals, softly plays repetitive melodies but adds distortion in some
important moments and poignantly sings while rain falls throughout the album.
No drums, no bass, no keyboards. The result is a very miserable, yet natural
and sincere sound. Shoegazer freaks could probably “enjoy” what Carl Gene does
due to the guitar effects and the soft, sometimes whispered vocals. As stated
in his Bandcamp page, Carl Gene uses music as a conduit for dealing with his
depression. And this is what makes his music so unique, in this EP you’ll find
nothing but passion, real music with no trace of posercism. In some moments you
can hear Carl’s dismay through his screams and noisy drone riffs, which sound
heavier in this EP than in “Hopeless”. My only gripe is that the EP is
extremely short: 22 minutes. I hope to keep on listening to more new stuff from
this guy in the future.
11. CLOUDS “Departe”
Here’s the sophomore full-length album by Clouds, a project
that, according to some interview with the band’s members, was not meant to go
this far. However, Clouds, composed by members of well-known doom metal bands
like Officium Triste, Eye of Solitude, Pantheist and Barren Earth, just to mention
a few, had a truly successful debut in 2014 with “Doliu”, being praised by
critics and the whole doom metal scene. The reason is that Clouds developed
their own signature sound somehow different to that of any of the bands which
the members belong. “Departe” makes no major changes and sounds like a
continuation of “Doliu”. Here we have more extremely bleak and depressive music
blessed with the brutal growls of Jón Aldará from Hamferð and Barren Earth perfectly
alternating clean vocals. Jón, who, as far as I know, also writes the lyrics
expresses a lot of sorrow and loss through very personal lyrics and an
excellent live performance, which is not easy for singers that shift from
growls to clean vocals in the studio. Kostas Panagiotou from Pantheist plays
sorrowful piano tunes throughout the album, this is a key element since most of
the songs open with these keyboards preparing the atmosphere for the crushing
doom metal discharge. All these elements create a beautiful experience. The
formula is still effective for this second album. In fact, opening track “How
Can I Be There” is quite catching and “In the Ocean of My Tears”, with a
stunning long introduction and female vocals, stands as the most melancholic
song ever made by the band. If you enjoyed “Doliu”, you’ll love “Departe”, and
basically if you’re into doom metal there is no doubt you should check this
album.
10. CREMATORY “Monument”
2015 was not a good year for me. But it seems like Crematory
also went through a bad situation in such a dreadful year. Their 2014’s
“Antiserum” was not having a good reception, and I still regard it their
weakest effort. But all bands have lows and highs, what in really fucked up
2015 was the departure of Matthias, who had delivered clean vocals and guitars
since “Act Seven”, album released in 1999 and which defined the sound of the
second period of Crematory’s style. According to interviews with the band, the
possibility of calling it a day was contemplated. However, the remaining founder
members pulled strength to hire new members, get into the studio and record a
“Monument” to the band’s history. The result is this 13th
full-length album featuring two new members who deliver a two-guitar sound and
new clean vocals.
“Monument” is clearly heavier that “Antiserum”, but no more,
since “Infinity” sounds heavier due to
Matthias’ aim of playing “gothic thrash” in such album. “Monument” has a
solid sound, with the band’s signature style, the outstanding brutal growls of
Felix, the use of lyrics in both German and English and the catching melodies. The
new clean singer sounds different, sometimes even scratching the heavy metal vocals
style. “Haus mit Garten” is one of the
most dynamic songs ever made by Crematory, while “Die so Soon” stands as the
ultra-catching song of the album, in which the new clean singer effectively
claims the respect of long term Crematory fans.
When Lotte left the band in 1999 an era of Crematory died, a
second era started with Matthias and now we see the birth of a third period in
the band's history. After the recording of “Monument” long-term bassist Heral
also parted ways with the band. He had joined in “Just Dreaming”, 22 years ago!
I hope Crematory continue for many years and I also hope fans realize that
Crematory is one of those few bands from the 90s that is not throwing mediocre
and uninspired albums nowadays.
9. BURIAL CHOIR “Iconoclast”
Last October Falls full-length album “The Plague of a Coming
Age” had a clear doom metal influence. The album was closer to October Tide
than to Agalloch. Seems like Lehto, the man behind October Falls has been
pretty much into doom metal (at least) last years, and being a
multi-instrumentalist allowed him to record a new album through which he could
conduct his darkest and slowest doom metal affinities. The result is a new
band, Burial Choir. And, yeah, it’s a band rather than a project, since a
second member joined and now they are looking for a label. Their first output
is available on Bandcamp and it’s entitled “Iconoclast”. Although the band
warns that this is a promotional demo without proper artwork I enjoyed it too
much like for not writing a couple of lines about it.
I love the name of the band, and the sound of this demo
makes worth the band’s name: The music is slow, dark, depressive and
mysterious, featuring an excellent funerary touch. Bells sound at the distance
between tracks, preparing a consuming a gloomy atmosphere that can pair that one that Tristitia used to create. You may remember that dense keyboards throughout the
songs and the church-like feeling in Tristitia’s “Garden of Darkness” and “One with Darkness”. Burial Choir develop a similar atmosphere, but the music in
general is definitively different, with slow, sometimes raw, riffs, excellent
guitar melodies and the Lehto’s vocals which sound between black metal screams
and death metal growls. I’m really looking forward for this album to be
released in physical format and also for Burial Chamber to continue doing this
brand of murky doom metal.
8. CROSS VAULT “Miles to Take”
I am a huge doom metal fan, always trying to find out what’s
new in the scene. But even with the advantages of internet, there are some
well-hidden gems waiting to be discovered. This is one of those
outstanding bands that are not that new but regretfully I had never listened to
before. Cross Vault, hailing from Germany, play some excellent doom metal and
they already have two full-length albums in their career. This year they dropped “Miles to Take”, a 2-track EP, and it finally approached my ears. Cross
Vault plays traditional doom with a poignant epic feeling. The band delivers
a style similar to that of Warning but with a suitable touch of Viking
melancholy which makes them to stand out. With a well-inspired songwriting,
Cross Vault includes slow riffs, weeping guitars and brilliant acoustic guitar
passages. Vocals become a key element because they poignantly express that
feeling of loss and torture. The singer makes an amazing execution which I
could only compare with Thomas Erikson from the unfortunately defunct band Griftegard (I don’t know if he sings so expressively in Year of the Goat since
I have never listened to that band). All I hear in this EP is passion,
sincerity and melancholy. Fans of epic and traditional doom metal shouldn’t
miss this one.
7. TREES OF ETERNITY “Hour of the Nightingale”
The tragedy of Trees of Eternity reminds us how unfair life
can be. I remember 2013, when I first listened to “Black Ocean”, off their demo
with the same name. I had no idea that Swallow the Sun’s guitarist, Raivio, was
involved, my attention drew to the soft enigmatic vocals of Aleah. After a few
listens to the demo anyone could conclude that the project had an important
future ahead. Expectations increased when the Norrman brothers, from the best
era of Katatonia, joined the band. Reading the devastating news of Aleah’s
passing saddens us not only because of the loss of an amazing singer in doom
metal, but also because nobody deserves the cruelty of such illness. And
Raivio, in the middle of his grieving, pulled strength to put out “Hour of the
Nightingale”, which was planned to be Trees of Eternity’s debut.
“Hour of the Nightingale” is quite a melancholic album, but
metalheads not familiar with the doom metal genre may actually also enjoy this
album. The reason is its dynamism, it’s not a monolithic piece of slow metal. Here
is where Raivio’s songwriting style is noted due to some clear similarities to
Swallow the Sun, a band that sometimes reaches the mid-tempo gothic metal
sound. The rich sound of the album includes excellent melancholic guitar
melodies, I don’t know if Fredrik Norrman took part of the song-writing, but
some October Tide-influenced riffs and solos can be detected. Of course, the
beautiful atmosphere of “Hour of the Nightingale” is crowned by Aleah’s unique
voice, which is not intended to be operatic (like it’s usual in gothic doom),
Aleah’s voice is rather soft and ethereal, sometimes almost whispered, closer
to Lethian Dream’s Carline. She sings with a shattering sadness through
impressive lyrics full of hopelessness. The overwhelming atmosphere surrounding
this album and the excellent songwriting make it an essential album of the
modern era of doom metal. Aleah will always live, sharing her astounding voice
through this album.
6. UNTIL DEATH OVERTAKES ME “Well of Dreams”
Stijn van Cauter may be mad to know that this album makes
someone happy. But is true, I am actually glad to know that Until Death
Overtakes Me is back from the dead after a 5-year hiatus. These have not been
good years for funeral doom, some important bands split up, Pantheist departed
from the genre, after listening to what Aarni is now doing understanding Twin Peaks
is no longer a puzzle, the guys behind one-man projects Amaranthine Trampler,
Torture Wheel, Kairi, Lord Grief, Reclusiam, Catacombs and Dusk ov Shadows were
apparently abducted by aliens and they left no trace. Somehow we are lucky to
still have Esoteric and Sketicism around. It is sad that the current funeral
doom metal scene seems to be full of generic one-man projects who believe that
all they have to do in funeral doom is to play as slow, heavy and ugly as
possible, which was not true back in the day. Stijn van Cauter is back here but
from all his projects only Until Death Overtakes Me is back to life. In the
Nulll website, van Cauter explains that Until Death Overtakes Me now will cluster
up all his other projects which included but were not limited to Fall of the
Grey-Winged One, I Dream No More, The Ethereal, The Organium and Beyond Black
Void. And with this statement in mind, we witnessed the release of a series of
singles this year, each of which I enjoyed with the proper nostalgia of a
funeral doom metal fan. These singles were gathered in a compilation called
“Well of Dreams”. These songs bring back the unique style of Until Death
Overtakes Me, that extremely dark blend of ambient darkwave and funeral doom
metal: ambient music contrasting with ultra-heavy and slow riffs and brutal
growls, mostly lacking of drums. The debris of I Dream No More can be contemplated
in “Magistralis”, with the space doom feeling in the track, while opening “Days
Without Hope” sounds like taken from previous releases of Until Death Overtakes
Me. The compilation is actually more varied than the previous full-length
albums. It even features an acoustic guitar in “Ancient Light”. While the album
sounds definitely like a renovated Until Death Overtakes Me I don’t think any
of his old fans would not enjoy this compilation of tracks. A full-length album
entitled “AnteMortem” is to be physically released by Dusktone. I am eager to
listen to such first full-length after the project’s hiatus.
5. THE TEMPLE “Forevermourn”
Being yet a specific sub-subgenre, epic doom metal
encompasses three different kinds of bands... At least that’s the way I setup
my playlists! First we have the very epic Viking bands whose members play
swords instead of guitars, like Doomsword and Scald. Then we have the religious
bands like Griftegard and Forsaken. And, finally, a small group of epic
doomsters play melancholic and personal doom metal in the vein of Warning and
Isole. But, with Warning diseased and Isole infected with poisonous progressive
metal, running into a worth-listening band fitting this last classification is
not an easy-going issue. Hailing from Greece, The Temple self-released their
first EP “As Once Was” last year and it quickly became one of my favorite
albums of 2015. After some months I read on Facebook that the band had been
signed by I Hate Records, which is a pretty cool label. Accordingly, I Hate put
out The Temple’s debut this year. “Forevermourn”, one of the best titles I’ve
ever heard, probably resembling Isole’s milestone “Forevermore”.
Epic doom is not about heaviness or extreme suicidal
atmosphere. This is why it is not simple to create an effective atmosphere in
the genre. The Temple know this, and they utterly nailed it in “Forevermourn”,
since the they have these two important highlights: First, the melodies are
just perfect, very natural weeping guitars through mid to down tempo drums and
riffs. And second, but not less important, the singer has a very particular
vocal style, completely unique. Far from the typical high-pitched tone, vocals
are rather melancholic and expressive, also featuring an excellent arrangement
in their interaction with the guitar melodies. The track “Beyond the Stars”, in
my opinion, reaches perfection in this style of doom with a perfect balance of
melancholy, honesty and melody. I hope this is the first of many excellent
albums by The Temple, a band that deserves becoming an important name in the
genre.
4. 40 WATT SUN “Wider than the Sky”
The evolution of Patrick Walker’s work achieves a new stage
with this long awaited follower to 40 Watt Sun’s “The Inside Room”, which
became my favorite album of 2011. Whilst Walker has stated that he kindly asked
Cyclone Empire not to promote “The Inside Room” as a doom metal album, it was
clear that, by the time, his fanbase was purely made up of Warning fans waiting
for a descendant of “Watching from a Distance”. Nevertheless, “The Inside Room”
had that folk rock feeling that built a gap between traditional doom metal and
40 Watt Sun, but still delighting our ears with highly distorted guitars. Released
under Walker’s own label, “Wider than the Sky” strips out the sound of 40 Watt
Sun, getting rid of any distorted riff and leaving a soft and charming melody
in each long track. This sounds like a familiar story for us doom metal fans,
since bands usually depart from the genre after a couple of albums. However, 40
Watt Sun is an example of these quite a few bands that evolve without losing
their emotional impact and inspiration. “Wider than the Sky” is not a happy
album, it features that unique songwriting style developed by Walker since the
Warning era: that introspective, personal and emotional style in both lyrics
and music. I had the opportunity of giving the first listen to this album while
being played live by 40 Watt Sun, the atmosphere was outstanding, filled with
melancholy, but also nostalgia and a bit of hope. Walker usually makes this
kind of albums that are perfect to be played while walking a city far from
home. Musically, “Wider than the Sky”, is of course slow, with Walker’s
distinctive poignant vocals and a nice combination of clear electric and
acoustic guitars. Some people may relate this album to Minnesota’s Low or the
saddest songs made by Idaho. Moscow-based doomsters A Young Man’s Funeral evolved
in a similar direction in their last album “Redemption”. What is true is that
Patrick Walker keeps on developing genuine music that doom metal fans can still
enjoy due to its melancholic nature. “Wider than the Sky” is a third
masterpiece that shouldn’t be missed by any fan of melancholic music.
3. THE MORNINGSIDE “Yellow”
I remember 2014, when BadMoodMan released the brand new The
Morningside album, “Letters from the Empty Towns”. The band that had caught me
in 2007 with that beautiful album with a forest of conifers on its cover art
had departed from their signature style of melodic death/doom metal, to venture
in progressive metal lands. Even though “Letters…” was not a bad album, I
couldn’t help feeling disappointed, since progressive metal has taken the soul
of a scary number of bands that traded melancholy and inspiration for convoluted
riffs. Look what they did to Katatonia, who stood as my favorite band for more
than a decade until this year when they dropped an album that I still cannot
understand. This 2016, Solitude Productions announced the release of the latest
The Morningside opus, “Yellow”, and the amazing record label described it as a
“return to the style of the second full-length album, ‘Moving Crosscurrent of
Time’”. A ready-witted description! I immediately ordered the album, because
“Yellow” brings back the post-rock clean guitars, the gorgeous melodies, the
doom metal feeling, and that unique autumn atmosphere which made “Missing Day”
the most played song in my iPod this autumn. The album has some progressive
sparks in some solos, but it never reaches the progressive death metal frown of
“Letters”.
Every time I start listening to this album I end up
listening to it as a whole. One never gets enough of “Yellow”, because it is
extremely well executed, the melodies are perfect, and the use of both, clean
and harsh vocals and acoustic passages are an extra point to the dynamism of
the album. A must have for fans of Agalloch, Katatonia, Akelei and October
Tide.
2. ALCEST “Kodama”
I imagine Neige sitting in his room these last 2 years since
“Shelter” was released, watching in his laptop the birth of dozens of bands
trying to imitate the legacy that he had built before “Shelter”; lots of guys recording
in their rooms amateur uninspired versions of Alcest, feeding on the melancholy
that sheds from “Souvenirs d'un autre monde”. Blackgaze, a genre whose father
abandoned, now a number of new bands fighting to occupy the throne Neige had
quitted. Some may call me crazy, but I blame Neige for the rebirth of the
shoegazing genre (not blackgaze), which was back in 2007 considered a defunct
genre. Neige not only introduced shoegaze to metalheads, but it is also
suspicious that since 2007 the number of pure shoegazing bands rose until these
days when the genre is quite popular, mostly controlled by hipsters though. What is
not in discussion is that Neige gave a new horizon to metal and now post-metal
and black metal blend with shoegaze every day. It is important, however, to
mention that quite a few blackgaze and post-black metal projects have been able
to evidence originality and inspiration, I could only mention Lantlos, Clouds
Collide, Sylvaine and Cold World. And while Deafheaven was earning popularity playing
in every hipster festival, Alcest returned to put order and to show how
blackgaze is played in its most perfect form.
“Shelter” was far from being a bad album. It could actually
be considered the fourth masterpiece by the band. But what we love from Alcest
is that signature sound that combines black metal and shoegaze, the soaring
unique screams of Neige and the dynamic drumming of Winterhalter. And while I
was thinking that it would take at least three albums for Alcest to return to
their roots, I listened to “Oiseaux De Proie”, the first song Prophecy Records
revealed, and it just made my day! The new album “Kodama” can be placed between
“Écailles de Lune” and “Les Voyages de L'âme”. It brings back the distortion in
guitars, the beautiful black metal riffs, the blast beats and, of course, the
outstanding raw screams. But melody is one of the most important aspects in
Alcest, and this is the point that Neige has always earned and a reason to also
love “Shelter”. Melodies are stunning in this new album, as in every Alcest
record, they depict the beauty of melancholy with proper limitations, without
sounding cheesy. Neige seems to sing in a more characteristic way, especially
in “Je Suis D'Ailleurs”. Winterhalter sounds amazing in this album with an
ultra-dynamic performance moving from modern Anathema’s energetic style to a
black metal drummer.
The whole record represents a perfect balance between beauty
and violence. I believe Alcest has accomplished their aim again and has dropped
another masterpiece. We are really grateful with Neige for coming back to the
genre he coined and forged for years. It is also striking how Alcest has been
doing excellent full-length albums for almost 10 years, without losing a single
spark of inspiration.
1. NOVEMBRE “URSA”
2016 was a nostalgic year. I found myself dusting off my old
CDs and searching on internet the whereabouts of bands that I had not listened
to in a long time. It turned out that most of them either split up or are
playing quite different music. For a reason that I still cannot understand I
had not listened to the Italian metal outfit Novembre in quite a long time. In
fact, I only knew their second output “Arte Novecento”, and the song “Venezia
Dismal” because I bought the compilation “Beuty in Darkness vol. 6” in 2002, so
this band is pure nostalgia for me. It turned out that Novembre had dropped a
new album in April through Peaceville Records. My expectations were low, quite
a few bands from the 90s are still playing good music with the feeling they had
in such a glorious decade. I totally understand it, it’s been 20 long years.
But in a similar way that Amorphis do, Novembre is luckily still playing the
same style with the same feeling. Maybe I don’t have the right to talk about
Novembre’s evolution through years since “Arte Novecento” is definitely
different. As far as I know, Novembre’s milestone is 1999’s “Classica”. But
what I can actually do is to tell you that I had the same feeling listening to
new Novambre, called “URSA”, as I felt when I first listened to “Venezia Dismal”:
it’s melancholic music, full of beauty, perfect exection, perfect vocals,
growls in the climax of the song… oh boy, all this is still present in “URSA”.
Long-term drummer Giuseppe Orlando, actually a founder member, parted ways with the band before the recording of “URSA”. This could have
negatively affected the band since drums are a key element of Novembre,
especially in “Arte Novecento”, whose drumming is that of a progressive metal
album. In this new record, drums were taken over by Stormlord drummer David
Folchitto. He delivers an excellent sound, with his double bass in the most
violent moments. The recording of drums and the mix of the album (performed by
omnipresent Dan Swanö) make drums sound a little similar to some 80s songs, which
I actually love. But probably the two aspects that I have always found haunting
of this band are Carmelo Orlando’s vocals and the melancholic atmosphere made
artistic sound: Carmelo’s vocals are perfect in this album, I find awesome the
fact that he never gave up his growls, and there are plenty of them in this
album. The overall atmosphere is beautiful and artistic, the polymorphic aspect
of Novembre’s style of metal makes you never get bored through the more that 60
minutes that the album runs. Excellent melodies in clean guitars blending with
riffs (probably not heavy ones) are also a key element to paint this picture.
Anders Nyström from Katatonia fame plays guitars in the single “Annoluce”. Being label partners, some comparisons between
Novembre and Katatonia had been made after the release of “URSA”. Despite
similarities are clear, Novembre have a very unique style and so do Katatonia,
although the latter has been moving towards progressive rock in their last two
albums.
The homonymous track “URSA” is my favorite song of the year.
It is a flawless, perfect track. But what make it so irresistible are the
unpredictable changes throughout the song. The melodies and songwriting are
stunning and describe a rollercoaster of violence, beauty and melancholia. This
feeling is actually present in the whole album. Which is elaborated and
complicated, but it doesn’t sound like a progressive metal aggression with the musicians
showing off their skills, Novembre rather creates an artistic picture: it’s
about beautiful melancholia rather than a bunch of convoluted riffs and
drumming.
This is, in my opinion, the best album of the
year, truly a masterpiece. All I hear here is nostalgia. “URSA” leaves a 90s
and early 2000s taste in your tongue. Novembre’s inspiration has survived to
the bad stage of the current metal scene and I hope they never give up to their
signature sound.
