Doomraiser - Lords of Mercy (2006)

   Doomraiser's concept and basics are definitely rooting back to the '80s classic doom metal, but similar to most new age doom metal bands, they also imported plenty of style features from stoner rock. Therefore it wouldn't be incorrect to call them as a stoner/doom band.
   The extended song lengths, repetitive riffings and the mystical, occult topics are quite old school doom references, but the stoner rock influenced groovy tendencies, the vocal style and the chilled touch neutralizing the effectiveness of these dark, ominous features before they would be able to form. With other words: even if doom have been raised, it suddenly took a friendly form. This instant style mixing became usual from the late '90s, and by more developed sound quality as an effective assistance it became a trend from the '00s. It happened slowly step by step, and since then it became difficult to find any new age doom metal band who didn't import any stoner rock features. But since the two styles are strongly related by having the same origin, they're easy to combine and this solution works so well, that not everyone notices. Also it's able to give a more modern touch to the classic sound of doom. Doomraiser successfully highlighted the advances and catchiness of both styles for their own favour by making their music diverse enough to have some enjoyable detail to discover for the listener for long term listening. "Lords of Mercy" is a potential favorite for the fans of doom metal and stoner rock.