Surtr is a doom band from France and consist of two members. Pretty new band, founded last year, and released a demo. They sent me a copy and asked for a review. The demo includes three songs, two original and one cover song. The music is pretty much straight up doom which is not bad thing. I can definitely tell they are influenced by Sabbath and Reverend Bizarre(one of my favorite).

The first two songs are simply titled part I and V which makes me suspect they already have a full length in works but I could be wrong. The first song is about 9 minutes long and I really love the beginning which is full of heavy riffs. However I have to admit I get a little bored after a while and I was wondering when the song will end. The second song is much more interesting and pretty catchy. Last song is a cover song on Black Sabbath "Electric Funeral" and I think it's done pretty decently. However, I think it's getting old because I've heard tons, tons of bands doing cover on Black Sabbath songs. I would prefer a cover song on some underrated bands like Reverend Bizarre. In fact, I don't think I ever heard of any band doing a cover on Reverend Bizarre songs. If any of you guys know of one then please tell me!


Overall, this is pretty good demo and I definitely will keep an eye on this band and see what they will do with their music in future. This is good stuff for anyone who dig some catchy doom music.

Best Song: Part V

Worst Song: Part I (gets boring after a bit while)

Score: 7/10

http://www.myspace.com/surtrdoom

Labels: black sabbath, doom, doom metal, review, surtr, traditional doom

Doom Metal Alliance is one of the biggest supporter of the Doom scene. If you are into Doom and still haven't heard of this then you better get your butt out of the rock and check it out. They release a sampler every now and then and this is their 9th one. I have to say this is my favorite sampler so far because of a high amount of excellent bands that deserve more recognition. The sampler consist of not just Doom but Drone, some Post Rock, Ambient, Sludge, and more. All the samplers are free for download so I'm telling you it won't hurt to check it out. I know nobody would say no to free music.

Best song: Yidhra - The Lament Of Longinus (killer song and I'm really into this band now thanks to the sampler)

Worst song: Destino Entierro - The Alcholichrist (pretty decent but I prefer the other songs than this one)


Score: 8.5/10


Download here

Labels: ambient, doom, doom metal alliance, drone, post rock, review, sampler, sludge metal

Hail the Seventh Angel! This is their second full length album and my favorite. This is such an excellent thrash album with big doom influences. I honestly never heard of that mixture until I listened to this album. It is so obvious due to some members being involved in several doom bands.

Each song is so freaking heavy and the guitar riffs is still so dirty but much chunkier than the debut album. The production is so much better in this album. I really appreciate that the bass is much more listenable because I'm bass freak and I think bass is under appreciated in a lot of metal albums. The drums is even better due to production and the drummer improving his skills. Overall, all instruments are much improved and the debut album is tough to beat but they surely did so.

The lyrics is amazing and very emotional inspired. It's very dark and they spoke of topics that not so many bands are willing to sing about. Especially the song "No Longer A Child" about a child experiencing abuse and rape.

Every ounce of this album is amazing and I will have to say this album is near perfection. In fact I went ahead and gave this album the perfect 10/10 which is a first!


Best Song: "Lament For The Weary"-title track and the most balanced in this album.

Worst Song: “Life In All Of Its Emptiness”-still excellent song but just inferior to rest of the songs in this album.

Score:PERFECT 10/10


www.myspace.com/originalseventhangel

Labels: christian, doom, review, seventh angel, thrash metal

The 3 Way Split is between No Heaven, Dios Incandescente, and (((0))) that got released by FunerART records label. The music is mostly drone and funeral doom style. I have to say I really dig Dios Incandenscente the most out of all three bands. I really love the heaviness of the three songs by them. I really recommend this band and I am definitely going to check out more of their music.

No Heaven is pretty decent but one major thing that really bother me is some production of their songs is terrible. I had to crank up the volume to be able to hear anything which I really don't like. I would rather all songs' volume to be at least similar level.

The (((0))) song is very interesting drone song....quite quiet also but listenable. It actually makes me want to listen more which can be good and bad thing....I do wish there's one more song by them to maybe even out the amount by the other bands.


Overall, this is a decent album and I'm very glad to find out about this because I heard Dios Incandescente for first time and I really dig them a lot. They are definitely the best out of three.

I would definitely recommend this album just to listen to Dios Incandescente's material.

Best Song:Darwin IV
Worst Song:Hymn Of The Selen

Score:6/10

Labels: 3-way split, doom, drone, funerart, metal, review

"The Skull" is Trouble's second full length album released in 1985. It may be an old album but it's such a killer classic. I absolutely dig this good ol' DOOOOOOOOOM metal. Very dark and heavy! It also has some thrash influences among the traditional doom riffs. A lot of very long tracks which is normal for doom metal. The production is bit rough but totally fit the mood perfectly. I definitely recommend this album for doom lovers and metalheads. It's such a classic that should not be ignored.

Score: 8.5/10
Best Song: The Wish
Worst Song:Gideon

http://www.newtrouble.com

Labels: doom, metal, review, trouble

Virgin Black is Australian doom/gothic metal band. Definitely one of my favorite in the doom genre. Their music is so beautiful and amazing composed. Sombre Romantic is one of Virgin Black's first album, after Trance EP, and has 11 songs(including outro). It's definitely my favorite album by VB due to the emotions being felt by listening throughout the album. They used a lot of classical instruments such as piano, violin, and cellos. Beautiful lyrics and beautiful compostition. I definitely recommend the album to anyone who dig doom/gothic sound...even anyone who enjoy classical music.

Best song: A Poet's Tears of Porcelain
Worst song:Weep for Me

I am telling you...there's absolutely no "bad" song...even the worst song on the album is still awesome.

I'm giving the album 8.5/10.

www.virginblack.com

www.myspace.com/virginblackofficial

Labels: aussie metal, christian, doom, gothic metal, review, virgin black