The Rhymes of Bitterness

To me this demo is a true classic of epic doom metal. It contains five really excellent songs which possess all the heaviness and slow motion that doom needs, yet the band put a lot of variety in their music so that non doomers might also find something which they enjoy. The Lords are slow as hell, tons of crushingly heavy riffs, yet they sometimes speed it up nicely just before you think it gets boring. These guys know their doom well.

And yes it is epic. The songs have plenty of epic, dramatic melodies which remind me of Candlemass, Solitude Aeturnus etc. This fits the lyrics, as this demo is a conceptual work telling one of the best known tales in literature; Lord of the Rings. It may sound boring nowadays but remember that this was released back in 1992 when nobody was thinking of all the hype to come.

While the music is quite melodic and epic, this doesn’t go for the vocals. The singer reminds me of Iniuria and old Cathedral, which means that he lacks the skills to match the quality of the music. He’s out of tune quite often and seemingly can’t decide whether to sing clean or growl, so this takes away a bit of the fascination. Yet the guy puts a lot of soul and effort into his work, so he may be forgiven. After listening to the demo a few times I got used to his voice more and more. And there is also a female singer who does a better job, adding some atmosphere and putting in a nice balance. And again, this was way before almost every gothic/dark/whatever metal band decided they’d need to hire a female vocalist to be “different”.

There is also a sixth track on the demo which is barely worth mentioning as it is a cover version of Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid”; it’s okay but doesn’t fit at all with the Lords’ own songs, plus I find it completely unnecessary to cover a song which is done by literally every school band. But the main part of this demo is brilliant. A pity that they never made it, they would have deserved a lot better.