Living in a dying time presents as many troubles as recording in a dying genre. Something went wrong with metal in 1995, and since that time we have had big oaf idiot metal from the NWN/FMP types which bores us, versus popular metal music which is vapid and consumerist at its core and so has nothing to offer of substance.
11 CommentsTags: dawning, Doom Metal, gothic, Heavy Metal, nothing left, review, rotten copper, steve cefala
Some of the best of doom metal seems to originate as a hybrid of Shakespearean drama and medieval heavy metal, and Cromlech comes to us from the Candlemass-tinged depths of that mental state.T
12 CommentsTags: cromlech, Doom Metal, Heavy Metal, power metal, review
Earlier this year, independent music distribution platform Bandcamp claimed that many stoner rock bands are in fact doom metal. This is a common logical fallacy based around associating the pace and instrumental tone of the music with actual musical content. The stoner “doom” trend of bands that started in the late 90s and early 2000s and has continued non-stop right up until the present almost twenty years later was one of the earliest hipster attempts to assimilate heavy metal before the waves of speed, death, and now black metal aesthetics rehashed into pop rock for the safe space generation.
26 CommentsTags: bandcamp, candlemass, doom, Doom Metal, hard rock, hipster bullshit, hipster idiocy, hipster invasion, idiots, pentagram, posers, poseurs, saint vitus, stoner, stoner doom, stoner rock
Death metal had been well established for years by the early 90s. The genre was rapidly becoming an arms race of technicality with many bands attempting to use studio trickery to make records far beyond their musical ability in attempt to compete with their best contemporaries, e.g. Morbid Angel. Many brought in hired shredder studio musicians like James Murphy with drum tracks copy and pasted together onto tape from drum samples and “played” live with triggers activating those same pre-recorded samples at the slightest touch. At the same time, good grindcore bands were turning into second-rate death metal ones or worse, lame “melodic hardcore” which turned hardcore punk aesthetics into slit your wrists whine pop.
Lee Dorrian, vocalist of Napalm Death on the b-side of Scum and From Enslavement to Obliteration, was disgusted by Napalm Death writing material incorporating the worst, bouncy hit people aspects of death metal in an attempt to reach a wider audience and quit the band in 1989. He soon formed Cathedral with Gaz Jennings and Mark Griffiths over a shared love of older heavy metal bands such as Black Sabbath, Candlemass, and Witchfinder General. Demos and an album on Dorrian’s old label Earache quickly followed.
22 CommentsTags: anniversary, cathedral, Doom Metal, earache records, forest of equilibirum, gaz jennings, Heavy Metal, lee dorrian, Metal Curmudgeon, minimalism, progressive
Experimental underground metal band Pale Existence has re-issued its 1994 demo cassette “Dark Sanctuary” in digital form. This allows a new generation to hear the music that borrowed from doom metal, early black metal, melodic death metal and abrasive deathgrind to create a vision of desolation and emptiness that mirrored the downfall of Western Civilization.
6 CommentsTags: Black Metal, death metal, Doom Metal, pale existence, stephen cefala
Dead Congregation annouced a new Greek tour to promote their recent Sombre Doom EP today on their Facebook page. Only two dates have been announced so far but more are coming.
No CommentsTags: dead congregation, death metal, death-doom, Doom Metal, greece, upcoming tours
Occasional Death Metal Underground contributor and Dawning and Pale Existence mastermind Steve Cefala was interviewed by Doom-metal.com about his No God Only Pain project. Want to read Steve discussing his influences, the corporate metal of Bob Rock and Scott Burns, survivalism, Hillary Clinton, and how the world is moving into a new dark age of uncertainty following the collapse of neoliberalism? Let’s find out!
13 CommentsTags: Black Metal, dawning, Doom Metal, doom-metal.com, Heavy Metal, interview, no god only pain, pale existence, steve cefala
German one man doom/black metal band The Ruins of Beverast have a new EP coming. How fucking boring will this be? Based on Blood Vaults, probably pretty fucking boring. Hopefully The Ruins of Beverast manages to tie his few interesting riffs together into meaningful compositions that don’t wear out their welcome and make me punch the stop button. He hasn’t been successful with that so far.
9 CommentsTags: Black Metal, Doom Metal, EP, takitum tootem, the ruins of beverast, upcoming release, van records
Sombre Doom is the new EP from Dead Congregation. The riffing is in the same Immolation and Incantation style with simple but effective variations as on their past releases while the production is a less compresssed version of Dead Congregation’s prior album, Promulgation of the Fall, some of The Best Underground Metal of 2014. Thankfully gone are the cheesy Kerry King style leads and guitarists AV and TK have markedly improved the song structure.
4 CommentsTags: 2016, dead congregation, death metal, death-doom, Doom Metal, EP, greece, Martyrdoom Productions, review, Sombre Doom
Greek death metal band Dead Congregation have posted the entirety of their upcoming Sombre Doom EP on Youtube for streaming. Fans of the band should have a listen before purchasing:
3 CommentsTags: dead congregation, death metal, Doom Metal, EP, greece, Martyrdoom Productions, Sombre Doom, stream, upcoming release, youtube
