Phlebotomized - Preach Eternal Gospels (1993)

   Before Phlebotomozed completely sank into the chaos of avantgarde metal, they had an EP that stayed closer to ordinary death/doom than their late works.
   Somehow it's inevitable to mention Paradise Lost as a main influence when it's about experimenting or more melodic ambitions in death/doom, and in their case is not different either. They operated with simple, heavy riffs and sound, but keyboards and violin turned the main view softer than it sould used to be in this style. The involve of these two instruments created an atmoshphere that not only had a following role like in general if they are in use, but often took the lead too. No matter how aggressive tone they had or how harsh their music sounded like, in lyrical topics they stayed at abstraction and alternative approach. The avantgarde experimentings are on a lower level on this EP, but some risky tryings could be found already. Sudden and unexpected changes, melancholic light melodies, progressive metal and even folk music features appeared, but in this amount they didn't turned things into complete chaos yet. The song's extended lenght they filled with enough diverse themes to keep constant focusing from the side of the listener. An interesting experimental record for the seekers of challenges in extreme music!