Structure – Heritage Review

By Steel Druhm

Just when I thought I’d make it to May without awarding the coveted Steel ov Approval, an unheralded project erupts from the Netherlands and forces my unwilling hand. Structure is the labor of love of Bram Bijlhout, who served seven years as a guitarist in atmo-doom deathers Officium Triste. Now he’s putting his own spin on the genre, handling everything save for vocals and drums. In comes the esteemed Pim Blankenstein, also of Officium Triste and The 11th Hour, to handle the former, with Dirk Bruinenberg (Elegy, ex-Adagio) manning the latter. On the full-length debut, Structure prove this project can honor the doom Heritage that birthed it. This is a massive, monolithic slab of doom that paints a sweeping mural across your head and heart, all in gray and black. Crushing and gorgeous in equal parts, Heritage takes you on an immersive journey through the human experience, teaching you about fathomless despair, undying hope, and ultimately, redemption. It’s a staggering work of heartbreaking genius, and something every doom fan needs to know about.

The album opens with what may be the hands-down winner of Song o’ the Year, “Will I Deserve It.” It’s a monumental doom epic that caves in your chest with its raw power and brings a tear to the most jaded eye with its heart-wrenching beauty. Vaguely Bathorycore riffs thunder away as Pim emits inhumanly death bellows, and soon the melancholic trilling calls to the sadperson in all of us. It’s heavy as fook but maintains a forlorn, tragic air, taking one back to the glory days of the Peaceville Three and those early My Dying Bride and Anathema gems. When Bram cuts loose with his soloing at the 4-minute mark, bittersweet beauty blooms like springtime flowers over the grave of a dearly departed, like a gift to remind you that, no matter where their spirit roams, they’re with you always. I could write 750 words about this song alone, but suffice it to say, it’s brilliant. It’s the rare album that can match a radiant moment like this one, but Heritage is far from done with its smoke show. “What We Have Lost” drags things down into funeral doom territory for rib-cracking density before gradually evolving into a more melodic voyage. Bram’s emotive guitar weaves throughout the heaviness as minimalist piano lines plink mournfully, and Mr. Pim shakes the rafters with unbearable pain. It’s a wonder something this intensely despondent can be so captivating, but despite its nearly 8-minute runtime, when it ends, you’ll wish it hadn’t.

“Long Before Me” is even longer yet no less stunning. It’s so morose and gloriously depressive, it’s almost exhilarating. It sucks you in with its funereal trilling and carries you away in its dark embrace. The guitars from 5 minutes onward are so minimalist but pure perfection. The title track borrows much from Warning’s timeless Watching from a Distance, replicating that album’s unrelenting glumness perfectly, only to switch to Bolt Thrower-esque power chugs that threaten your very existence. Surrounding these moments are bright, melodic bits that take me back to Edge of Sanity’s Crimson. Closer “Until the Last Gasp” is a somber instrumental that imparts the same grim emptiness evoked by the denouement of Agalloch’s Ashes Against the Grain, making one feel as if they stand at the precipice of a swirling, matter-annihilating black hole. As the track advances, small hints of hope creep into the droning doom, imparting faint rays of light into the inky blackness. The album climaxes with horns blaring a sad but cautiously uplifting note, giving you the perfect ending to a truly stupendous journey. At 50 minutes, Heritage somehow feels much shorter, and despite the harrowing despair, you won’t want to escape its bleak cocoon. It almost hurts to hear the last strains fade away into silence. I haven’t had that experience in a long time. I’m at a loss to find flaws, and no song feels overlong or bloated. This is an album you must experience as a whole, and it’s shockingly easy to digest in its entirety.

I’m nothing but impressed by what Bram accomplished here. His writing is at another level, and his guitar work is stunning. He does so much by doing so little, always opting for feeling over showboating. His melodic touches are perfect and arrive at ideal times to take some of the burden from the listener’s shoulders. His heavy riffing is spot on, oppressive, pulverizing, and inevitable. He shows a great ability to inject real emotion into the music without leaning too much on Goth idioms. It’s all so well-crafted and defined that Heritage is more like a master’s canvas than a recording. Many moments triggered an emotional response in me, though I strenuously resist such things. Mr. Blankenstein was the perfect choice to provide vocals. His ungodly death roars are powerful and tooth-rattling, and he pairs superbly with the larger-than-life material. He’s the ideal doom-death front man, and this may be his finest hour. Ayreon / Star One singer Robert Soeterboek provides very sparse, understated, clean vocals and does a fine job.

When you spin an album as heavy and depressive as this and immediately want to hit replay, there’s something very right about it, and something very wrong with you. Heritage is as close to flawless as it gets, and I’m unable to pinpoint any areas that could be improved upon. This is a stunning accomplishment, and I can’t do Heritage justice with mere words. You need to experience this yourself. A MUST HEAR.

Rating: 4.5/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Ardua Music
Websites: structure-doom.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/structure.doom
Releases Worldwide: April 25th, 2025

#2025 #45 #Anathema #Apr25 #ArduaMusic #DeathMetal #DoomMetal #DutchMetal #Heritage #MyDyingBride #OfficiumTriste #Review #Reviews #Structure #The11thHour #Warning

Tribunal – In Penitence and Ruin Review

By Steel Druhm

Tribunal’s 2023 debut was one of those unheralded albums that came out of nowhere and walloped you with a warhammer, leaving you to collect thoughts and teeth in the aftermath. A brilliant take on Gothic doom, The Weight of Remembrance borrowed much from genre elders like My Dying Bride, Paradise Lost, and Draconian, but somehow managed to feel fresh and fascinating. A true labor of love from Soren Mourne and Etienne Flinn, the album balanced heaviness, beauty, mood, and melody and left you wanting MOAR. Now, after much anticipation, we get more in the form of sophomore outing, In Penitence and Ruin. The dynamic duo have brought on new members to form a complete band, and In Penitence and Ruin is a bigger, more expansive record, moving from their Gothic doom base outward toward Candlemassive-esque epic doom. It’s a grand declaration of intent, but can Tribunal rule yet again?

The headline here is that In Penitence lacks some of the sheer heaviness and the sense of dread that made the debut so captivating. In the push to expand their sound, Tribunal sacrificed weight for scope and breadth, bringing them closer to the Draconian school of Goth doom. Opener “Incarnadine” is a beautiful piece of music in line with what they did last time. Piano and understated cello combine with doom riffs, and Soren’s ethereal voice pairs perfectly with Etienne’s death roars and blackened rasps. It’s a gorgeous song with peaks and valleys of emotion, but it’s a bit too light at times, letting the orchestrations overpower the riffs. “A Wound Unhealing” brings back the oppression with a plodding journey that manages to be both theatrical and heavy as fook. Soren kills it with her impassioned vocals that almost reach the operatic stage, and the presence of harpsichord and cello doesn’t disrupt the huge doom riffage that plods all over the lot. This is what I want from Tribunal, and it’s wonderful. “The Sword of the Slain” is another highlight, blending extra blackened elements into the doom stew for a dark and powerful sound. The riffs channel primitive Bathorycore as Soren flies high above and Etienne snarls and roars for all he’s worth. This one is a grim keeper.

While the front half of In Penitence is exceptional, the back half is a touch less so. “…and the Thorn-Choked Flowers” is very good, hitting that sweet spot between Draconian and Novembers Doom, and “Amoured in Shadow” is perhaps the most memorable piece present due to big vocal hooks. On the downside, “Penitence” is a nice track, but not as enthralling as its peers. Closer “Between the Sea and Stars” is quite good, even if it sounds more like Seven Spires than Tribunal, but it lacks the heavy doom oomph I crave. At 48:21, In Penitence doesn’t feel overly long, and though not every track is a showstopper, none drag or feel expendable. The top shelf stuff is similar to what we got on the debut, and the few tracks that slip a notch are still good. The downturn in overall heaviness isn’t fatal, and the more expansive soundscape opens up new worlds for them to explore in the future.

While Soren’s vocals were often understated on the debut, she’s the beating heartbeat of the Tribunal sound here. She goes all in, too, showcasing her considerable range and power. Her wide-ranging vocals propel the compositions to great heights, sometimes reminding one of Jex Thoth, and at others, Tower’s Sarabeth Linden. If you heard the debut, you’ll be surprised by the force of her delivery. She moves from angelic to mournful to outright badass as the material demands, and she impresses at every turn. Her graceful cello work adds a layer of melancholic class to the proceedings, with it getting in the way of the riffs only occasionally. Etienne impresses playing the rampaging beast to Soren’s beauty, delivering booming death roars and scathing blackened rasps. His guitar work alongside new axe Jessica Yang yields big doom riff energy and enough weepy trilling to sell the despair. They take a minimalist approach to solos, letting the cello fill in the blanks, but it works.

This was one of the year’s more anticipated releases for yours Steely, and though it doesn’t hit with the same force as The Weight of Remembrance, In Pentience and Ruin is still a very good, and nearly great Gothic doom album. Yes, there’s a general softening as they try to expand the boundaries of their sound, but this is still compelling and heavy enough to satisfy that unsightly doom itch. Tribunal continue to impress and I’m excited to see where they go next. Hear this and get depressed in a fucking classy way.

Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: 20 Buck Spin
Websites: instagram.com/tribunaldoom | facebook.com/tribunaldoom
Releases Worldwide: April 18th, 2025

#20BuckSpin #2025 #35 #Apr25 #CanadianMetal #DeathMetal #DoomMetal #Draconian #GothicDoom #JexThoth #MyDyingBride #PenitenceAndRuin #Review #Reviews #TheWeightOfRemembrance #Tribunal

Atramentum – The Wrath Within Review

By Killjoy

I heard more than a few times in these halls that 2024 was a lean year for the doomier side of metal. Indeed, I spent the better part of my n00b period last year longing fruitlessly to review that particular flavor of death-doom that hits the sweet spot between melancholy and aggression, so this year I seized the first available opportunity to fulfill my wish. Atramentum, formed in Hamburg, Germany in 2018, released debut album Doomed in Time in 2023 during a dalliance with TeufelsZeug Records that lasted only two years. Undaunted, they decided to “go big or go home,” now self-releasing a whopping 72-minute sophomore album The Wrath Within. A brazen move, to be sure, but was it warranted?

If the band photo below is any indication, Atramentum wear their influences on their chests rather than on their sleeves. These folks are among the many disciples of the legendary Peaceville sound that My Dying Bride and Paradise Lost propagated. They excel at writing sturdy twin guitar melodies (performed by Oliver Dermann and Tim Stopar) alongside a charismatic vocal performance by Sebastian Schlenker. That said, to call them mere copycats would be a disservice. The music wields a rougher edge than the traditional Peaceville style, with plenty of fast guitar solos and death riffs. Further, Atramentum swap much of the customary gothic atmosphere for dour black metal and occasionally even blues rock, demonstrating great progression towards crafting their own sound.

The Wrath Within feels like a weighted blanket—cozy but not overly crushing or suffocating. “Higgs Field” and “Window” are on the hefty side, laden with big, ominous doom riffs and rumbling death growls. There’s plenty of mad to complement the sad; for instance, “Farewell” sees Atramentum unleash their Wrath Within in the form of aggressive drumming from Julian Gricksch and a killer guitar solo. No matter where any given moment lands on the death/doom slider, the guitar melodies are keen and enhanced enough to keep the bleakness at manageable levels. The vocal melodies, on the other hand, are where the record stumbles the most. While Schlenker’s voice is far from unpleasant, he struggles to imbue the low notes with force (“Living in Dystopia”) and his higher pitches sound tinny, particularly when double-tracked alongside his own formidable growls in the final chorus of “Lake of My Own Essence.” To be fair, there are other times when the singing fares better, but his cleans could surely use more training and practice.

Now it’s time to address the elephant in the room, both a figure of speech and a similitude of The Wrath Within’s runtime. With most of the 13 tracks lasting around 5-6 minutes, this is a case of the ideas being too numerous rather than too sizable. It helps that the songwriting is dynamic and at times unpredictable. The main guitar riff in “Emptiness Inside” and the soft bass grooves in the title track have a bluesy saunter which comes out of left field but integrates surprisingly well with the death-doom. While most songs are interesting enough individually, there is little sense of interplay between them, causing the album’s extreme length to work against it when consumed in one sitting. With so many disparate tracks, some are bound to be weaker (“Lake of My Own Essence,” “Another Life to Die”) and could have been left out to make The Wrath Within more digestible as a whole.

Atramentum is a band brimming with potential that’s realized in some ways but not in others. They are great at writing vehement songs and aren’t afraid to experiment while doing so. The Wrath Within may be overlong and uneven, but I can’t say I ever became bored while listening. The positive side of a stuffed album is that most enjoyers of downcast death-doom will likely find something appealing within. With some tightening of the clean vocals and judicious self-editing, Atramentum will be a moody force to be reckoned with.

Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 5 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Self-Release
Websites: atramentum1.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/atramentumhamburg
Releases Worldwide: January 24th, 2025

#2025 #30 #Atramentum #DeathMetal #DoomMetal #GermanMetal #Jan25 #MyDyingBride #ParadiseLost #Review #Reviews #SelfRelease #TheWrathWithin

Witnesses – Joy Review

By Thus Spoke

Since their inception in 2016, New York’s Witnesses have been a fluid entity. A constantly shifting lineup, held together by sole permanent member and mastermind Greg Schwan, where a small collection of artists lend their voices and instrumental talents to the equally shifting sounds of each album—ambient, post-metal, and doom. Joy sees Witnesses—this time as a trio, with Simon Bibby (of Thy Listless Heart) providing vocals, and Angel Hernandez percussion—turn to doom. And doom is the purported heart of Witnesses, as they claim to take primary inspiration from the British early Peaceville era of the sound. But if their past is any indicator, it would be unwise to put Witnesses in a box, because Joy leans as heavily into prog and post as it does into anything else.

Joy is comprised of five songs (plus the short “Interlude”) mysteriously described as “deeply contradictory compositions about self-actualization.” Each named “Joy,” but with a different subtitle,1 they could effectively be seen as different interpretations of the titular emotion. Joy does not sound, in general, particularly joyful, but it is not gloomy and despairing like you might expect. It is variously introspective (“Like a River”), triumphant (“I See Everything”), and dramatic (“Safety in Me”) with a blunt, clean kind of openness to the compositions, hiding nothing, transitioning crisply, but not without grace. To my ears, the likeness that strikes most strongly is to Wilderun, albeit a more pared-down version, as Bibby’s croons launch themselves upwards alongside major-modulated blackened swooshes, pounding fills, and subtle flourishes of violin. At other times, however, the doom footprint stamps itself firmly before you in the string-accented, sweetly sad sways (“Like a River”), the drooping chords pulled out in downtempo dips (“The Endings”), and the very My Dying Bride-esque spoken word (“Beyond the Sound of My Voice”). These threads combine to form a unique concoction of bare emotions and increasingly ephemeral through-lines, harder to grasp than let slip by.

Two main attributes form Joy’s strength and downfall: raw emotionality and dynamism. The first is largely down to Bibby’s vocal performance, which is at turns wistfully melancholic (“Like a River”), and commanding (“I See Everything,” “Safety in Me”). But instrumentation also plays a significant role, in doomy weepiness (“Like a River,”), or more post-metal mournful meanderings (“I See Everything,” “Interlude”). The second is gained through the aggressive progressiveness of Witnesses’ compositional style, and the impeccable percussion of Angel Hernandez. Where the former is overt—the music moving relentlessly between assertive bombast and ethereal gentleness—the latter is insidiously omnipresent; electric with shifting energies. Yet, while the force of feeling can be resonant, it frequently approaches the abrasive as the cleans are so forceful as to nearly be shouted (“I See Everything,” “Safety in Me”), or dwells in the dreaded major key. These tendencies are made unpleasant not because intense cleans and major keys are bad in themselves,2 but because they are paired with an overly gymnastic approach to songwriting, where Witnesses leaps jarringly from one mood to another, tarring the brilliance of individual passages. The most blatant example, “The Endings,” transitions through silence between styles so disparate that it wasn’t until I began more active listening that I realized this wasn’t a new song. Equally discombobulating is the sudden pathos at the endings of “I See Everything,” and “Safety in Me,” where a short passage of gentle, mournful melody and singing comes abruptly from nowhere. But this proclivity is ubiquitous and ruins many genuine moments of beauty and poignancy. The group yanks bouncy exuberance out of plaintiveness; juxtaposing half-major, half-dissonant riffs with pared-back post-metal. They repeatedly lurch from a harmonizing serenade into uncomfortably flat intonation.

It is thus the two subtler elements of Joy’s feeling and flexibility that are to be praised: those beautiful melodic moments, and the brilliant drumming. The opening track “Like a River,” arguably presents the best of the former, and is arguably the best track on the album. When it comes to percussion, it is the many, elastic fills, tumbling rollovers, and vibrant use of cymbals that provide the majority of the album’s true feeling. The drums greatly benefitted from a production that puts them right near the front of the mix but tends to relegate the guitars to a background role, draining their potency and leaving little to distract listeners in the moments when the singing—also front and center—dominates the sound palate, overly zealous.

Witnesses lives up to their name; their music feels like the stories of varied voices, potent, but unharmonised. The gorgeous, deceptive simplicity of “Like a River” gives way to a record too emotionally and tonally scattershot to stick, and it’s an immense disappointment. Those with a high tolerance for whimsical, uneven prog may find much to appreciate, but for the rest of us, there’s not an overabundance of Joy to be had.

Rating: Disappointing
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Self-Released
Websites: Bandcamp | Facebook
Releases Worldwide: November 8th, 2024

#20 #2024 #AmericanMetal #DoomMetal #Joy #MyDyingBride #Nov24 #PostMetal #ProgMetal #Review #Reviews #SelfReleases #Wilderun #Witnesses

Avernus – Grievances Review

By Twelve

The last time Avernus released a full-length album, the year was 1997, which means the release of Grievances represents the longest delay between a debut and sophomore album I’m aware of. Twenty-seven years is a long time for fans to wait, but you have to admire the dedication! These U.S.-based doom-slingers experimented with death and doom metal back in ye olde 1990s before life and limbo got in the way. The intervening years are a long time to hone a sound, so there was no telling what to expect with Grievances—except one look at that cover should tell you we’re in for some serious doom metal. With only that to go on, I was eager to see how nearly three decades make a sophomore album.

Straightaway it’s clear that the years have been kind to Avernus, as Grievances sounds excellent. The guitars (Erik Kikke, Rick McCoy, and James Genez)1 have a great tone to them, with just the right amount of distortion to sound both heavy and clear. McCoy’s growls evoke Swallow the Sun, and even the drumming (Rick Yifrach) sounds great, with enough punch to adapt to the many shifting paces and moods adorning Grievances. Rounding out the Avernus sound, synths from Genez made subtle appearances to add layers to most tracks, sometimes acting as a lead (“Exitus”) but generally supporting the many guitars acting as the heroes. Add to this an excellent mix that emphasizes each contributing player, and we’re off to a great start within seconds of pressing play.

Grievances is primarily a doom metal album. And after 27 years, Avernus seems to have shed most of their death metal influence, except perhaps in the pacing of the music. “Nemesis” is a quintessentially modern doom song, opening with gorgeous arpeggios and subtle keys before transitioning into a melancholic theme that persists throughout the nine-minute song. This main idea allows the guitars to shine and gives the song a hopeful feel to contrast against its opening woe. Similarly, “Return to Dust” is a powerful track, with a memorable chorus and a comforting theme. These songs remind me a bit of My Dying Bride in the guitar work and prevailing sadness that hangs over Grievances. There’s a gothic influence in the compositions, a general preference for long songs, and an energy that keeps you engaged across the full runtime. It’s a strong sound, and Avernus performs it well.

The main drawback for Grievances is its length, and, sadly, the length of nearly every song on the album. “Nemesis,” “The Burning Down,” and “Quietus” all feature too-long interludes that feel mostly like filler, and few of the album’s eight-or-nine-minute songs quite justify their length. There are also several interlude tracks on the album that give the impression of recycled song ideas rather than thematic, connective tissue making things more coherent. “Open Arms” and “Plateau” are two such tracks; they’re genuinely beautiful, but at three minutes apiece awkwardly tread the line between proper song and album break. In the back half of Grievances are “Utter Uphoria,” a spacey track with touches of electronica that feel very out-of-place, and “Abandoned,” a five-minute song in which almost nothing happens. When you put all of this together, it’s hard not to regard Grievances as an album with quite a bit of bloat. Even though none of the songs are bad, I can easily picture an alternate album that is fifteen or even twenty minutes shorter, and I think I would have much preferred that version.

The good news is that there isn’t any part of Grievances that isn’t enjoyable; perhaps the lengthy break between albums meant that Avernus had a lot of ideas going into this and the vast majority of them are good. If you’re just a little less picky than me about album flow, you’ll probably enjoy Grievances significantly more than I do. Every song, band member, and idea sounds great—the ideas just tend to stay a little overlong. Still, there are much worse things than too much of a good thing and the world of doom metal will be better off to have Avernus back in it. I am certainly looking forward to seeing where they take this next.

Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 256 kbps mp3
Label: M-Theory Audio
Websites: avernus.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/avernusdoommetal
Releases Worldwide: September 20th, 2024

#2024 #30 #AmericanMetal #Avernus #DoomMetal #GothicMetal #Grievances #MTheoryAudio #MyDyingBride #Review #Reviews #Sep24 #SwallowTheSun