Demo 2013

This release contains 2 tracks. One is entitled 'Sweet Relief' and the other being 'Isolation'. Now, when I first heard this I was blown away. The atmosphere of the recording is awesome! You really feel the sadness and hatred that they want to get across. I will break it down for you below.

The song 'Sweet Relief' is the first one on this EP. I really liked the song but I didn't feel the 'doom' to the maximum, so I wondered. This song had more of an evil gothic sound than actual doom metal. Of course, the doom elements are there but not greatly. I love the grunts that this band has. The guitars are also done the way it should be to get that atmosphere across. Nothing too flashy, yet very effective. They even added a folk style kind of acoustic guitar playing at the end of the track. Drums are pretty standard and do what they are supposed to. Again, nothing to fancy but good to fit what is being played. Now here is my only complaint, I didn't like the female vocals all that much. At points it felt like she just wasn't into it. I love my fair share of 'beauty and the beast doom' (Draconian, Nox Aurea, etc) but here, I didn't feel that emotion that the aforementioned singers gave. She sounds bored. Hopefully she gets her shit together for the next release.

Now THIS next song (Isolation) is the one that made me purchase the physical copy from Senseless Life Records without so much a hesitation! If the demo would have gone on like the first song, I probably wouldn't have bought it. That being said, I love my physical copies and I fell in love with this track!! Here is where the doom comes in, and beautifully as well. After the intro which lets you know this will be a ride of sorrow, comes in the chugging guitars and the whaling guitars. All hail the whaling guitars of DOOM! They really gave it all with this one. Between the whaling and crushing guitars, the piano interlude, spoken vocals (typical of doom and yet still awesome), a climax towards the end, and a soft ending, this is what you come for when you want doom. A formula repeated many times, but we who love doom don't come for technically brutality, we come for emotion in the music and to be entranced by it.

All in all a great effort by the Finnish band. I hope to hear more from them soon and purchase it!!