Heavy-Doom Metal, as I like to call everything that is merely slowed down heavy metal, is not known for being fertile ground for originality. It is a rather narrow sub-genre (more like sub-subgenre) which gives its adherents a very specific and rather primitive set of tools to work with and is at this point a retro-worship of classic and original acts like Candlemass. Hailing from Pennsylvania, USA, Crypt Sermon make no attempt to break off from this role of obvious emulation.
Out of the Garden should by no means be simply reduced to Candlemass-worship, but the influence is unmistakable. This is encouraging as one listens to the album for the first time and finds all the bells and whistles in the right places. The big, epic, long-drawn choruses, the guitar melodies, the climatic solos. It all harks back to the “catchy” selling points of Candlemass.
Once the brume has dissipated as the winds of repeated listens blow in, one realizes that this is everything Out of the Garden has to offer. This makes it a great release for those who want Candlemass without the trouble of having to digest all the meat of acts like Atlantean Kodex. The casual fan of epic heavy metal will have a blast with this new release.
Tags: 2015, Atlantean Kodex, candlemass, catchy, crypt sermon, Doom Metal, epic heavy metal, February, Heavy Metal, Out of the Garden, Pennsylvania, USA
This sounds like early Solitude Aeturnus crossed with Pagan Altar and an influence from the later funeral doom bands. There’s a Greek band that went under the radar that plays a similar albeit better version of this style, they’re called Heathendom and are similar to Memento Mori, Candlemass and Candlemass.
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As far as “doom metal” goes, there’s nothing here you can’t find in early Trouble, The Obsessed or Pentagram records.
This is tolerable retro metal that doesn’t really do anything wrong. Out of the Garden not exceptional in any way but was a very enjoyable. It will definitely be boring with repeated spins.