This 50 minutes long record is divided to 4 songs, and despite the songs extended lengths, they simply never turning overly monotonous or boring, thanks to the excellence of their compositions and catchy themes. It might be not an exaggeration to state, that "Ancient Oath" is one of the best records of the death/doom subgenre. And the same time one of the most underrated ones too, unfortunately. The way how the features of the down pulling, traditional form of death/doom and its audience friendlier, softer, melancholic aspect are merged is genius. Probably the sound, that isn't bad at all for a demo, since it's a studio record, but still not on the level of high quality death/doom albums, also had role in creating the impression of diversity. The simple noisy riffs can't be as noisy as they supposed to in similar cases, but this had advantageous effect on the main view. However, the excellent themes that could be heard on "Ancient Oath" requiring practiced musicians with complete understanding of the style. For the experiences involved, probably Josh Banke (bass), Tim Call (drumms) and Kody Keyworth (guitar) could be found responsible, since all 3 members played together in Aldeberan since a while. The music has quite '90s feeling, possible influences could be Winter, Paramaecium, Ceremonium, Thorns of the Carrion and Paradise Lost. The combination of catchy themes, soft melodies, and heaviness is pretty effective and well applied. Despite the plenty of suspected influences and the fact that Ealdath's music didn't offer anything new, their perspective gave the subgenre a pretty extensive and obvious definition, that was seemingly performed with ease.
Strongly recommended for the fans of death/doom!
No comments:
Post a Comment