Victims of Creation - Symmetry of Our Plagued Existence (2013)

   Victims of Creation formed as a death/doom/funeral doom band, but their debut and so far one and only album was much more than that. It's like a summarizing record of the doom metal style from their own perspective.
   Even though on "Symmetry of Our Plagued Existence" death /doom and funeral doom elements are dominant by the suspected main influence of Esoteric, epic doom themes and clear singing are taking their parts too, which are strongly reminding to Candlemass. If the listener pays attention, the solo in the last song is like a pretty evident reference to Tony Iommi's style, and even it's tone is quite hard rock-like. Therefore it's not an exaggeration to say that the band intended to show the widest diversity as possible for a death/doom band, and they pretty much succeeded. The songs are also well composed, their extended lengths were used up well, and not ending up in monotony. The fact that all the influences they built from are strongly related, made the band's job easier, they just had to follow a specific guideline and decide in which order they preferred to go heavier or take a softer turn. At the other hand, the album is easier to go into than most funeral doom records are, but the dynamics based on the contrast of '80s and '90s styles works quite well. By their wider perspective than usual the album could be enjoyable for both the fans of the original, less audience friendly aspect of death/doom and the fans of the romance based melancholic direction.