Come Taste the Doom

I’m not sure why people have a problem with female-fronted traditional doom. If there’s any metal genre that could use a feminine counterpoint, it’s trad-doom. While metal usually has plenty of notes and a huge wall of sound, effectively choking out anything but the most powerful of true “singing” voices, the sparse compositions of doom allow the female voice room to breathe. Sure, in some cases using a woman is barely better than a gimmick, but there are those bands that know exactly how to make it work.

Rituals of the Oak has it all figured out on Come Taste the Doom. Here, the Aussie quartet offers up five tracks of pure doom metal, fronted by an effective feminine voice. Sabine Hamad-Linfoot has an earthy husk that perfectly fits the druidic impression given by their band name and lyrics. Think a mellowed-out Uta Plotkin (Witch Mountain). Or Jinx Dawson (Coven) if she wasn’t so damned goofy. Hamad-Linfoot’s delivery is simple and understated, but she conveys emotion and crescendos nicely when needed. Most importantly, her voice is well-controlled and beautifully enchanting.

The rest of the band fully understands that, really, this is all about her voice. They always give her room. Opener “Here” has them barely making any noise as she sings her part of the verse, then they rock hard before easing up once again. Their riffs are just as mellow as her voice, but as with the vocal work, they also know when to kick things into gear. Rather than being content to simply plod along without variation, as is the downfall of many a trad-doom band, they regularly alternate between slow and mid-tempo.

The production work is, in a word, perfect. In other words, you might forget that it was produced at all, because it simply sounds like a pristine live performance, sans extraneous noise. There is nothing, psychologically, to stand between you and the music itself. The drums have a natural sound, and the guitar and bass tones are everything you could want. Every sound has enough room to breathe, and the volume is set low enough to allow variation and prevent clipping. Album highlight “On the Sixth Moon” is perhaps the best example of the excellent work at the control board. It features just about the only moment to remind you this is a recording, with a nice layered vocal melody.

The approach is compelling, the mood is infectious, and the sound is excellent. But there is a weakness. The songwriting is not quite there. Yes, they understand their craft well and write to their strengths. And many of the riffs and vocal melodies are fairly well memorable. But there’s nothing revolutionary, and nothing that will make you play air guitar while listening in public.

The Verdict: Despite songwriting that doesn’t hit a higher plane, this is a very good album with a great sound and mellow mood. It will take the edge off.

originally written for Doom-metal.com

Eyes Like Snow is the doom department of motherlabel Northern Silence Productions. For some reason this label provides in mediocre traditional doom, although all the bands are trying very hard. I can only think of The Wandering Midget's EP and debut that really stand out. The debut of Wheel, Rituals of the Oak and Apostle of Solitude where very enjoyable, but I'm afraid they won't survive the test of time. Strange, 'cause they all do have a lot of potential.

The new release of Rituals of the Oak is - again - a bit of a disappointment. While their debut sounded like a proper tribute to the legendary Mourn and was, at that time, rather refreshing, this album has to compete with a whole new standard of 'female vocaled' doom bands. The resurrection of the occult atmosphere in the mainstream has made it inevitable for traditional doom bands to get compared with these revivalists. Although Rituals of the Oak offers a different sound than for example Jex Thoth, Blood Ceremony or The Devil's Blood, they have the unfortunate discomfort to make music that resembles it just enough to make people compare. And when they get compared, they aren't doing that good. The female vocals are too mediocre and the music has all been done before. The comparison especially gets tricky when Rituals of the Oak actually tries to compete with these occult revivalist bands. This can be heard in the last song of the album All Wells Are Poisoned, where they unmistakably choose the path of the occult atmosphere, even similar to Sabbath Assembly. Surprisingly, this song is without any doubt the most interesting one of the album, to say the least. It also is the longest, which makes me wonder why the band didn't opt to make an entire album out of this excellent material and songwriting. As the title of my review says, I think it's time to take on a new direction for this band.

Over all the songs are too boring to intrigue for the whole duration of the album. The fact that the last song is actually the best song and even the only song worth noticing, reminds me of Crystal Viper's Sleeping Swords from "The Curse of Crystal Viper" and It Will Come's Forever Lost from "Bound". In both cases I had hoped to hear more of those songs on future work, but in both cases my hope was futile. In the end I can't say this album is as uninteresting as the ones of Crystal Viper or It Will Come, since it still is a pretty good tribute to Mourn. But it just doesn't suffice to endure the test of time. I really hope their next album explores the path of All Wells Are Poisoned a bit more, 'cause that will probably make the band worth noticing. Now they are a bit too much like a dime a dozen...