Lycus-Tempest ALBUM REVIEW

A favorite genre among aspiring metal musicians who don’t have the technical ability to properly execute a perfect 64^th note harmonized run in 11/8 time, doom metal can be relatively easy to play, but not necessarily easy to listen to. The listener must first get past the fact that doom metal is rife with ten-plus minute dirges played at tempos so frustratingly slow that they seem to impede time. There are no shout-along choruses like in power metal or catchy riffs like in thrash, and this is particularly true for funeral doom, one of the main dervishes of the greater doom style that we have available for our dark listening enjoyment. Pioneered by European bands such as Esoteric and Thergothon in the 1990s, the microgenre has since spawned several acolytes who specialize in crafting the least commercial-friendly music imaginable, all played at (what feels like) 4 beats per minute. When done well, funeral doom can make for a compelling listen to those who are conditioned to the more extreme side of the metal spectrum, and one of the latest artists to emerge from this style is Oakland’s Lycus.

METAL MONDAYS: Thergothon-Stream from the Heavens ALBUM REVIEW

   As is evident by my last couple ramblings, I’ve been on a pretty serious doom metal kick as of late and I’ve been loving every miserable wrist-cutting inducing minute of it! The stunted-tempo music of Candlemass, Solitude Aeturnus, Hooded Menace, and of course, the funeral doom of bands like Mournful Congregation and Evoken. However, the music of the latter two bands would not be compelling me to abuse anti-depressants right now if it wasn’t for Thergothon, a Finnish band who many see as the originators of the style with their one and only album Stream from the Heavens.

Spotify Is Cool

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Yes, I just started using Spotify. Am I late to the party? Yes! But what's important is the fact that I'm on board and I now have a resource to discover loads of bands that fit into the incredibly unpopular microgenre of funeral doom

METAL MONDAYS: Evoken-Atra Mors ABUM REVIEW

   Remember this review where I stated that Pornography by The Cure is the most depressing album in popular music history? That assertion, arguably, still stands, but what about the most depressing album in underground music history? Now THAT'S a different story, because in the underground there is next to no expectations to be accepted by the public, much less to sell enough records to move out of your mom's apartment, so you have the liberation to make any kind of music that you damn well please, no matter how much it could, in this case, seemingly create clinical depression in the listener. And if there's one way to earn yourself an anti-depressant prescription, it would probably be by giving this album a few listens and then going to see a psychiatrist.