As clowns push death metal and black metal into pure repetition, death-doom rises, in one fiery instance with Consecration who take a Candlemass approach to Skepticism style funeral doom and make energetic but morbid havens of dark sound.

The hybrid origins of doom metal, going back to Black Sabbath and Saint Vitus, emerge in this release which combines upbeat heavy metal riffs with extended chromatic dirges with hints of melody, giving it a duality that powers its return to nihilistic confrontation with the empty side of life.

Songs are based around using the chorus like a weapon, building divergence in layers and then returning to a familiar them in a new context before eventually expanding it like a growing flower. In all of it, a funeral atmosphere persists and paradoxically, becomes comfortable.

Tags: consecration, death-doom, Doom Metal