Earlier in the Coffins review, it was mentioned how that band was little more than a superficial imitator of bands like Cianide, and that apart from imitating the same types of riffs, achieved little in the way of communication. This has everything to do with how a piece of music is organized. It is is not in the riff itself but the relationship between riffs and in how, in relation to each other, they sketch a landscape. Cianide understands this, Coffins and the multitudes of third-rate imitators do not.
While the tag of “doom” is attached to Cianide, it is only right to call them death metal. Period. A death metal band that sometimes plays in relatively slow tempos using completely diatonic schemes. This is strongly reminiscent of Black Sabbath, which were dubbed “doom” only in hindsight after later acts like Saint Vitus or Witchfinder General. Both of these bands just play simple heavy metal in a style that emphasizes the weight of riffs. Being the talented musicians they are, their song-construction is fluent and their parts inter-related. This goes without saying when it comes to good metal. The term “doom” only makes sense as a genre tags for acts such as Skepticism, Worship or Thergothon which definitely do not follow a death metal or a heavy metal template but operate on entirely different “ideological” (so to speak, but not politically, rather, artistically) premises.
In Death, Doom and Destruction, Cianide bring a more mobile conception of their particular style that emphasizes the dynamics afforded by their mid-paced trudging that allows them to waiver between heavy-trudging riffs ala Celtic Frost and faster tremolo-picked passages. Compared to their early work, this newer album is slightly simplified at the riff-level, although the construction has suffered little deterioration that this listener can perceive. The songwriting skills that allow them channel the rhythmic and harmonic impulse of one section onto the next and to trace a roller-coaster-like curve in the course of these musical pieces is stronger than ever. If anything, I would call this a condensed Cianide.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hj8SAYBUG4
Tags: 2015, cianide, Death Doom and Destruction, death metal, doom death metal, Doom Metal
Cianide has that awesome early 90s Nuclear Blast/ Earache type sound .
A few days ago I was listening to doom-death band Winter – Into Darkness and Eternal Frost and it struck me how similar they sound to early Autopsy combined with Celtic Frost. I had a hard time getting into their music at first since I had not listened to Winter in more than 7 years.
I remember Prozak listed Winter on the Metal FAQ as one of the best death-doom bands although that list is now deleted from the new FAQ version. In your opinion, how does this band stack up to Cianide and other doom greats?
I don’t remember having heard Winter. What should I check by them?
They also have some parts that remind me of Saint Vitus. I remember Darkthrone also recycling a Saint Vitus riff on their Panzerfaust album. Disembowelment is also an interesting case when it comes to slow death metal.
Glad someone else says so too. Disembowelment has nothing to do with proper doom metal. It’s just poorly-written death metal with slow sections.
Well they only released on Ep and a full album:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iY5w5XYJ8Zg
I remember this band was highly recommended by Prozak back in the day but now I just realized there are no reviews on the Dark Legions Archive. Weird.
Here is the link if you don’t believe me.
It’s the FAQ (2007) just F3 keyword Winter.
There’s a review from the old deathmetal.org: https://www.deathmetal.org/zine/winter-into-darkness/
This is an old album from the 90s and it has a song called Metal Never Bends. Dumbass song to be honest but great title nevertheless.
You know what, you said this to me when you played the album at your old place. When the reissue came out this was the first thing that I remembered. You have the Razorback reissue.
Winter is ESSENTIAL doom listening . Heavily influenced bands like Noothegrush and sludge. And remember that back in that time there was only doom metal : there was no “stoner” doom or all these subgenres yet .Winter was known as a Celtic Frost like band back then riff -wise. It is sad that essential doom bands like Winter, Disembowlment, and Grief are not more relevant , since they each had classic albums and were pre-genre.
Into Darkness is the classic from Winter .
Nice post