Depressed Mode: ...For Death... (4.5/5)

Joshua's Top 10 Metal Albums of 2009
#2 of 10



Year: 2009
Genre: Dooooooooooooom
Label: Firedoom Music
TRT: 45:51

Depressed Mode

Depressed Mode made the transition from "joke band" to "serious musical project" with alarming alacrity, but then they're not exactly new to the scene , boasting members of Shape of Despair and Tyrant among their ranks.

As I stated in my review of their debut album, they've mastered the artful balance of mid-paced and snail-paced, using female vocals, keys, piano and strings as the dark threads used to weave this somber tapestry of death and doom.

It's crushing and beautiful, just the way I like my metal.

01 Death Multiplies
02 She’s Frozen
03 Loving a Shadow
04 The Scent
05 Prologue to Thousand Skies
06 Tunnel of Pain
07 A Glimpse of Tomorrow
08 A Sigh
09 ...For Death...

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Depressed Mode: Ghosts of Devotion (4.5/5)

Year: 2007
Genre: Atmospheric Death Doom
Label: Firedoom Music
TRT: 51:15

Depressed Mode started out as a joke amongst members of Shape of Despair, but quickly solidified as the potential was realized.

Even with a lame pun for a name, this band manages to be kickass. Part of what makes them so good is their ability to balance the mid-paced with the snails-paced.

The other part is their ability to weave the elements of female vocals, keys, piano and strings into their songs, without ever coming off as cheesy, trite or forced.

I may even like this release more than the new one, which will undoubtedly rank high on my end of the year best of metal list.

01 Alone
02 So Long
03 Words of Silence
04 Suffer in Darkness
05 Ghosts of Devotion
06 The Sun Is Dead
07 Fallen Angel
08 Dunkelheit
09 Cold

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Virgin Black: Requiem - Fortissimo (5/5)

Joshua's Top 10 Metal Albums of 2008
#1 out of 10


Year: 2008
Genre: Orchestral Funeral Death Doom
Label: The End
TRT: 43:59

Virgin Black continues down the dark spiral of despair with this album. Officially the third and final piece of the Requiem trilogy (though the second to be released), it is the ultimate realization of sorrow and slighted petitions regarding the nature of life and love. Revolving around morbid themes of suffering and death, the band forgoes many of the contrasting elements found in previous releases and opts for a somewhat straight-forward funeral doom metal sound mixed with bursts of death/doom, and vocalist Rowan London abandons his operatic range entirely in favor of death growls. This time around, the band contrasts the heavier side of their sound against the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra’s classical contributions and the operatic offerings of their resident soprano. This combination manages to open up new avenues of expression and serves to underline the grief and passion of everything else they’ve done.

Fortissimo still nods to previous works, but whereas the main hook for Mezzo Forte was Drink the Midnight Hymn and Opera de Trance, Fortissimo taps the vein of I Sleep With the Emporer. Flowing seamlessly from Mezzo Forte with despair, anger and longing, it's simultaneously devastating, euphoric and cathartic.

01 The Fragile Breath
02 In Winter's Ash
03 Silent
04 God in Dust
05 Lacrimosa (Gather Me)
06 Darkness
07 Forever

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Daylight Dies: Lost to the Living (4/5)

Joshua's Top 10 Metal Albums of 2008
#7 out of 10


Year: 2008
Genre: Death Doom Metal
Label: Candlelight
TRT: 51:28

I’m a bit late to the party, having only just discovered them this year. Lost to the Living is the fourth studio album from these Americans, and if their older work is similar, I’m going to have a lot of fun exploring their back catalogue. Doomy, gloomy and yet groovy. If you enjoy Opeth or Swallow the Sun, be sure to check out this band.

01 Cathedral
02 Descending
03 A Subtle Violence
04 And a Slow Surrender
05 Last Alone
06 Woke Up Lost
07 The Morning Light
08 At a Loss
09 A Portrait in White

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Yeti: Yeti (5/5)

Year: 1998
Label: Skaught Productions
Genre: Atmospheric Doom
TRT: 38:40

Possibly my very first exposure to doom metal back in 1999 or 2000. I didn't know what genre it was back then, I just knew that it was the heaviest thing I'd ever heard up to that point in my life. Even after all these years, I absolutely love this short little EP, and rue the fact that the band drastically changed their style on their following (hard to find) full-length, and then just sort of vanished. Sure, they have a myspace page, but it hasn't been updated since 2004, and nothing they ever do could match the enchantment this eponymous recording evokes.

01 (Intro)
02 Foretold Gathering
03 The Awakening
04 I Walk Among the Dead
05 When Darkness Fails to Fall

Yeti on MySpace

P.H.O.B.O.S.: Tectonic (4/5)

Year: 2005
Genre: Dark Atmospheric Blackened Doom
Label: Candlelight
TRT: 57:56

Pounding, cold, mechanical and utterly crushing. If Meshuggah made a doom album, it would resemble this release. There is little else to say, so close your mouth before you drown in the swirling tides destruction.

01 Nietzschean Dynamics
02 Gregarious
03 Wisdoom
04 Monochrome Red
05 Engulfed in Subduction
06 Nihil Credo
07 Inseminator / Matrix
08 Dormant / Dead End

download part I
download part II

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Veni Domine: Material Sanctuary (4.5/5)

Year: 1994
Label: Thunderload
Genre: Atmospheric Power Doom
TRT: 65:42

Pretty inventive for the time, combining the heavy elements of doom metal with the vocal stylings of power metal, with none of the silliness. Choral arrangements and keyboards add a good dose of "epic" to this prophetic tale of imminent destruction.

eBay is a much better place to aquire this title as well as their debut Fall Babylon Fall, as Amazon users seem to be a bit more unwilling to part with their copies.

01 The Meeting
02 Ecclesiastes
03 Material Sanctuary
04 Ritual of the Sinner
05 The Mass
06 Behold the Signs
07 Wrath of the Lion
08 Beyond the Doom
09 Baroque Moderne

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Kongh: Counting Heartbeats (4.5/5)

#8 out of 10
Metal Album of 2007

Year: 2007
Label: Trust No One
Genre: Doom Metal Sludge
TRT: 64:43

Another late in the year discovery for me. A beautifully crafted disc, with five epic tracks containing some seriously groovy sludge-laden doom goodness. Not sure what else to say. Not sure what else needs to be said.

01 Pushed Beyond
02 Counting Heartbeats
03 Adapt the Void
04 Megaprimatus
05 Zihuatanejo

download part 1
download part 2

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Swallow the Sun: Hope (5/5)

Year: 2007
Label: Spinefarm
Genre: Doom Death Metal
TRT: 63:40

I had heard of this band several years back, but their music was always so hard to track down that I finally gave up. Well 2007 changed that, with Hope being one of the first albums I acquired in January. In a few short months of listening, Swallow the Sun has joined the ranks of artists such as Virgin Black, Opeth, Ulver and Meshuggah as one of my favorite bands of all time. They’re unique blend of death and doom make for some of the most destroyingly catchy music I’ve ever heard. I have no complaints, not a single one. Brutal growls and beautiful cleans at all the right moments, perfectly fitting every arrangement. Do yourself a favor and get in to this band, you will not regret it.

01 Hope
02 These Hours of Despair
03 The Justice of Suffering
04 Don't Fall Asleep (Horror Pt. 2)
05 Too Cold For Tears
06 The Empty Sky
07 No Light, No Hope
08 Doomed to Walk the Earth
09 These Low Lands

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Virgin Black: Requiem - Mezzo Forte (5/5)

#1 out of 10
Metal Albums of 2007

Year: 2007
Label: The End/Massacre
Genre: Classical Orchestrated Doom
TRT: 52:09

Virgin Black has been my favorite band since the very first time I heard them in 2002. This is actually the second installment of a three part series entitled Requiem, however The End records chose to release this first, as it’s the closest to previous releases out of the three. Mezzo Forte was recorded, along with Pianissimo and Fortissimo, with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, making this at once the most ambitious, dense and multi-faceted Virgin Black release to date. With soaring operatic vocals (both male and female) and crushing growls, the album takes you for a tumultuous and emotional ride. The orchestration meshes seamlessly with Virgin Black’s brand of gothic doom metal, which comes as no surprise if you’re familiar with past releases. It’s no less than you would expect. Listening to this album, for me at least, is an experience I find difficult to put in to words. To put it simply, Virgin Black resonates within my soul.

01 Requiem, Kyrie
02 In Death
03 Midnight's Hymn
04 ...And I Am Suffering
05 Domine
06 Lacrimosa (I Am Blind With Weeping)
07 Rest Eternal

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