HeavyHardMetalmania: DOOMED: The Ancient Path Reviewed

Sometimes it is funny how life can turn out, a few weeks ago I got contacted by a guy who wanted to trade some of my bands stuff for some stuff he had in his distro, so I took a quick listen and picked out the stuff I wanted. And a few days ago the package arrived and I started listening. One of the things I got in this trade was a Cd called The Ancient Path by the German death/doom metal band Doomed. And holy fuck I haven't stopped listening to this Cd for a few days now, I have listen to it in the morning before I go to work and the first thing that I have done when I have come home is turned on my Cd player and cranked the volume. So yeah it is that amazing, my hat goes off the guy behind it all.

Doomed is a one man band from Germany, and The Ancient Path is his first album, and I

PIERRE LAUBE

think he has scored a homerun right out of the bat. What we are dealing with is doom/ death metal, but more oriented to the funeral doom spectra, we are at times taking it very slow. Maybe not down to the crawl of Esoteric, but pretty damn close. I'm getting a strong Funeral vibe (the Norwegian doomsters), but the biggest difference is that the vocals in Doomed is prominently done with growling vocals and in Funeral we have clean vocals. I also feel older Katatonia melodies and moods.

What in my mind sets this band apart from the million of bands out there that are trying to break the land speed record of slow is that Doomed actually makes something interesting out of it and that they introduce the oh so important element of melody. Where many other bands just hammer out their power chords in super slow succession Doomed adds many fantastic melodies that just stick in your head instantly. There are also some clean guitars parts here and there and keyboards as well that makes the listening experience more interesting. Don't get me wrong, there is power chord hammering aplenty on this record, but they are accompanied by killer melodies, and for me this makes all the difference in the world. And since we are talking doom metal here I guess it is not a surprise that the songs are long, the album is around 57 min long an there are seven songs on it, so do the math. The version I received is a very good looking dig pack version released by Death Cult Productions, and this version contains a bonus track, so hence forth it having seven tracks.

The vocals are mainly super low growls that really makes you feel that you are at the bottom of the Abyss getting an audience by the man in black. The vocals fit really well with the songs, I guess this is a tried and true formula but Doomed has made an fantastic addition to this genre. There are some cleanish vocals and some that I don't really know what to call. Eventou the vocals are fairly the same on all the songs, they never get monotomus or tiring. To be honest I'm still in awe of this album!

The sound is pretty much perfect, the guitars have a utterly crushing tone and are in the foreground of the sound landscape. Only being overshadowed by the vocals, in term of volume. Everything sounds really killer, maybe the bass could have been a tad higher in the mix. To me this album sounds very much alive, and I don't mean that it was recorded live, since it is one dude who did all the instrument, that would be kind of tricky. But I mean that you can hear small inconsistency in the playing, and for me that adds so much to an album, that it isn't overly produced and messed with so it turns in to a sterile mess. Not this one, this is an album filled with emotion and killer moods.
So if you like doom/death metal, doomy death metal or funeral doom this album needs to find its way into your collection. Go and get it and you can thank me later.

Sweden`s Wilhelm Lindh*, "Portuguese by adoption," guitar player, composer and owner of the Doom / Death Metal band The Gardnerz, reviews here in HeavyHardMetalmania.net. Careful and professional analysis to the music and albums with suggestions of what there is to see and hear ... not to be missed. "The wisdom is found in the extremes, all extreme Metal here!".