Chiral - Abisso (2015)

  "Abisso" was basically Chiral's second demo record from 2014, that also had a limited CD release one year after with two extra songs, that extended the demo to decent full-length duration. And it was definitely worth to make such a release, since the demo was in various ways pretty interesting.
   A wide range of influences could be discovered in Chiral's music, that was in this current state the mix of atmospheric black metal and black/doom. The latest always counts as something extraordinary to find, partly because black/doom is quite rare in general, and also the two styles aren't too easy to combine. Therefore not many can manage to create something enjoyable and impressive out of them. In case of Chiral the black/doom features were a consequence of experimenting, that came from atmospheric approach. This is usually not really supporting the heavier sound that doom metal themes might require, but the atmospheric sound and effects are also including epic elements, that are strongly related to classic doom metal. The sound still didn't become as heavy as it supposed to be, but the thick, misty melancholic atmosphere worked out pretty well with the slow themes. In the two longest songs of the record this solution was well applied. In the rest of the songs drastic switches from soft melodies to intensity are common. This might remind to some death/doom classics of the early '90s, cause the way of experimenting was somewhat similar at the heralds of the subgenre. It's another question how intentional the whole thing was from Chiral, but the results were exciting indeed. The involvement of doom features opened further depths for the atmospheric blackened melancholy, and made the album more diverse than what could be expected in this style. Strongly recommended for the fans of atmospheric black metal and blackened doom.

VIII - Drakon (2014)

   VIII had an interesting debut with "Drakon", an album that at one hand showed mixed influences, and also had a pretty unusual and exciting approach by sound.
    Their music mainly included black and doom metal influences, but the more intense songs had black/death impression. Extended and monotonous slow downs have determining role, and they creating refreshing contrast with the mostly mid speed themes that are basically giving the major part of the album. The atmosphere have secondary role and comes in one pack with a strong echo effect. Its presence supporting the noisy drone influenced sound that's more common to find at drone/doom or sludge/doom bands. This combination works pretty well with black metal themes by giving unexpected depths to the whole thing. The impression of some sort of desperate rage is joining to the down-pulling melancholy, that increases the heaviness of the music. The unusual tone of the sound having strange and attracting effect the same time. This might count as a hint for the yet unexploited possibilities of black/doom metal. Small and occasional supporting features like organ-like keyboards, obscure sound effects, barely hearable suffocating-like narrative vocal style and an embedded funeral march detail are blurring the border between the themes and the atmosphere, but these having role only during the extended slow downs. Probably these getting too high focus on the album. Less of them, or the involvement of a catchy lead or a bit more diverse riff would still lead the required contrast, especially cause there are very catchy themes to hear on the album. Whether if "Drakon" was just an experimental album or the determined imagination of the band members, it's an underground gem (a dark one of course), that stands out from the long line of black metal related bands by its unique sound and ambition. 

Hanged Ghost - The Attraction of Oblivion (2013)

   Hanged Ghost debuted in 2011 by "Knowledge of the Occult", a rehearsal quality record. Their music showed kinda mixed influences, that's not the easiest thing to figure out for two reasons. 

   First of all because of their style pick, which is basically funeral doom. And the funeral doom they play is definitely not easy to go into. Extended themes during even more extended song lengths, monotonous, endless suffering in its most extreme form. At the other hand the poor quality is also not helping. The noisy heaviness based riffs doesn't prevail as they used to in funeral doom, and the sound is more relatable to black metal. Therefore by listening to the debut, it's difficult to decide if the sound was intentionally like that, or it just came from the rehearsal quality. Things are more clear on "The Attraction of Oblivion", since the sound was better, but kept the same tendency. Funeral doom's essential slow, down-pulling themes not necessarily making any specific distinguishing line between black and death metal features, especially if the selected sound is strongly atmospheric and echoing. So both could function next to each other unnoticed. On the side of the sound, occasionally some quite old school black metal themes showing up too, of course in slower version. To the more complete black metal influenced impression  the vocals are assisting too, when deep growling switches to higher toned cawing. And it happens quite frequently, therefore the blackened touch became one of the Hanged Ghost's main features. These characteristics working pretty well together to highlight desperate hopelessness, and able to easily bring up the most negative feelings from the listener. The album might be pretty enjoyable for the fans of funeral doom!

Venus Star - Nigredo Expulsion (2013)

   Venus Star has another feature that used to be common at extreme Finnish bands on the side of those that have been mentioned previously: the intention to not fall into self-repeating. '90s metal bands always tried new perspectives or experimented with something new. This tradition also could be sensed at Venus Star, because each album is different.

   Since these changes came step by step, and "Nigredo Expulsion" is already the third Venus Star album, for first listening it might be not even quite evident that it's the same band or have been made by the same person. There are some analogies, like middle speed is still preferred, and the vocal style might sound familiar, but the album definitely became less extreme. Tempo and theme switches have been nearly gone, instead of raw and aggressive tone more atmospheric sound showed up, and the themes became less diverse too. It seems like if unified sound became the main priority, and instead of expressing extremity, balance had framing role. The black and doom influenced themes were possible to distinguish previously, but now they're like fused together. The heaviness of doom riffs is combined with blackened atmosphere, but black metal themes having shorter presence. This solution is unique and sounds interesting, but the same time in this hybrid form the range of possibilities also decreased. More unified sound doesn't let as much room for rawness and extremities than before. Simplicity is still an important factor, but this perspective has also some restricting influence. 

Deep Desolation - Rites of Blasphemy (2012)

   Deep Desolation's activity isn't interesting only because they're playing black/doom, a rarely appearing and therefore yet untapped subgenre, but their approach is also unique. 

    On their first album they've already experimented with confidence, and its sound was more black metal compatible. By "Rites of Blasphemy" they went further, the themes are more diverse, and by the sound drifted closer to a more modern approach, that might include some drone influence. This mixed sound is definitely not usual in black metal, but from the '10s further bands tried themselves this way, usually bands with mixed styles, like black/death or crusty-sludgy black. In case of Deep Desolation the wide range of themes could be one of the reasons why they've selected this path, cause a less sizzling sound might be more advantageous for their more traditional solo themes. But another possible reason could be the various musical influences of the band members. The fact that the whole thing didn't turn out in some incoherent tangle, and the band didn't only found common ground and created unified albums, but was also able to develop their style further, proves the work of practiced musicians. In total "Rites of Blasphemy" is an excellent record and could be a milestone in the lesser known and underrated style of black/doom metal.

Deep Desolation - Subliminal Visions (2011)

   Since black/doom metal is not a common thing to find, the style definitely have potential if it's about introducing new aspects and possibilites. And it's exactly what Deep Desolation did.
   Interestingly the situation of black/doom somehow reminds to what happened with death/doom before the late '00s. Though the subgenre existed since the late '80s, only a few bands tried to play it, and most were short lived. In black metal seemingly it's depressive direction supposed to fill a similar role, though it's a far different thing, since it completely lacks the heaviness and musical effectiveness of doom metal, and relies only on strong atmospheric sound. In Deep Desolation's music there are no references to find to any of the older names that could be related to black/doom, they just played their own old school rooted style with slight groovy touch. This groovy affection is resposnible for their common switch to middle speed, and not turning all songs too slow or extremely long. It's like if the band tried to find some middle way for themselves to not turn too exaggerated ino any direction. Their music somehow reminds to old Samael and Morbid Angel with some even older, traditional '80 heavy and doom metal influences. Therefore "Subliminal Visions" doesn't lack catchy themes, heaviness and atmosphere either. The raw extreme basics got mashed up and after doom based themes and groovy intensity were added, it turned to some massive creamy mixture like if the instructions of an old recipe book have been followed. Because of it's less extreme features this creamy black/doom might fit to the taste of wider audience than just the fans of black or death metal.

Venus Star - The Dark Victor (2011)

   Probably the feature that makes the Finnish underground scene more interesting compared to other scenes (especially the Swedish and Norwegian ones) is the intention and courage to do things different, and to show other perspectives. It's basically the opposite that could be experienced in neighbor countries, where most bands kept specific style features like dogmas, making their whole scenes sounding alike and eventually predictable and boring. Finnish black metal always have been pretty easy to distinguish from Norwegian black, and Venus Star, a lesser known and underrated one man project intended to introduce another alternative for the genre.

   Black/doom as a style pick was already a promising idea, since the subgenre is rare, and therefore still could offer possibilities that haven't been heard yet. It's also important to mention, that unlike in case of most Eastern European bands, the style pick different from ordinary black metal didn't occur because the musician(s) lacked the skills that would be necessary for black metal. Because usually this is the reason why many Eastern European bands ending up playing thrash/black or black metal with middle speed. Pretty heavy, down pulling, doom influenced riffs could be heard on "The Dark Victor", and the sound by not being atmospheric as it used to be for black metal, is pretty advantageous for these themes. By the assistance of the unfriendly cawing vocal style, the main impression is similarly demoralizing like in case of sludge/doom bands. Again as usual, the lack of any aesthetic features combined with noisy sound giving a way darker tone, because there's no relief for the listener, nothing emotional or human-like to hang into. The more intense songs on the album also operating with pretty basic themes. Even though in this form the music doesn't reflect old school sound, the primitive themes still including some old school related touch, like if the album was a reinterpretation of the whole concept. Approaching black metal from doom, or reverse. Raw, compromise-less musical minimalism at its best, might become potential favorite for the fans of black/doom and sludge/doom metal.  

Mourning Dawn - For the Fallen... (2009)

   Black/doom is definitely not a common style combination to find, though the 2 styles aren't difficult to combine. If it's about turning to a slower, more depressed direction, deperessive suicidal black metal is the most frequent outcome. 
   Basically the 2 styles aren't so far from each other, except by involving doom influences the heavier and wider musical possibilities are the main characteristics on the side of minimalism and emotional atmosphere, while on the depressive suicidal direction builds only on the last 2. Bethlehem's "Dictius Te Necare" was one of the heralds of both directions, but their concept was closer to DSBM, and lacked doom influened themes. Still by listening to Mourning Dawn, that desperately sour and the same time aggressive tone waves back somehow. In their music the combination of blackened themes, heavy and excellent sound, common, but not sudden or unexpected theme switches are leading to a quite diverse main view. That diversity makes even their longest songs enjoyable, and excludes the possibilty of turning monotonous or repetitive. The album is definitely unified, but still, so many things are happening during this one hour long record, that "For the Fallen..." demands plenty of  occasions to be listened. The themes are very well composed together, therefore even if there is a quite wide range of different features to find, the album sounds free from sharp contrasts or switches. Mourning Dawn's music sounds relatable for both DSBM and death/doom, because they haven't been stingy to experiment with the themes, the speed,  and with the atmosphere in various ways. The extended song lenghts are definitely reasonable and well used up in this case. This might make them also a bit harder to go into for long term if the listener expects only one of the 2 styles, but if the main tone was found, their music is is like an exciting ongoing journey into the depths of melancholic extremities.

Agalloch - Ashes Against the Grain (2006)

     A timeless classic mix between melancholy gothic metal and doom, Agalloch created Ashes Against the Grain, an album with huge emotion, exemplified in the first three minutes of the album. Limbs, the opening song, gives us a glimpse of how the entire album flows. It opens melodically instrumental, with an almost upbeat emotion; followed shortly by a turn to melancholy acoustic, more aggressive instruments and vocals. Ashes Against the Grain is another one of those "apex" albums as I've mentioned before. It's the sound you want to hear from Agalloch over and over again. (spoiler, you can, with Mantle and Marrow of the Spirit).

     If you're looking to get into something more grim and ambient than what folk metal Agalloch may have been previously known for, Ashes Against the Grain is memorizing as far as composition for what it's worth. This is hands down my favorite Agalloch album. I was first introduced to this band when I was only 15 through an incorrectly named Limewire song when looking for some ridiculous Cradle of Filth song. For almost 10 more years, I never figured out what this mislabeled "Limbs" song was until a local record store buddy recommended me this album. What I mean to say is, this album is timeless and unforgettable.

Gallhammer - Gloomy Lights (2004)

   There are two possible outcomes if Japanese starting to play metal: they chosing an old school path that refers back to the basics of the actual genre, or they mixing various genres to create something weird. The second happened in the case of Gallhammer, a band that also sparked attention because of it's female lineup.
   Basicly their main concept is about simplicity. In this case there could be more ways to determine the style of a band than if an exact direction with it's features was chosen, so it's quite objective. The influence of black and doom metal could be sensed in their music and that's already something uncommon to hear in general. Things getting more complicated when the album turns more intense by some raw middle speed crust punk-like themes. They've operated with the simplest basic themes by picking something from everything. The album isn't so uninfied and sounds like if they didn't relly care about to create a whole by trying to find some common ground for these mixed influences. Instead of the atmospheric sound of black, the heaviness of doom or the intensiveness of crust punk there is something that more reminds to the desolated impression of early grunge and sludge bands. A frustrated atmosphere that becomes heavy by self-destruction and randomly shows it's hidden inner rage. "Gloomy Lights" sounds the same way depressive, chaotic and insane. The very sick vocal style and the rehearsal room sound just increased it's rawness and effectiveness. An interesting aspect of musickness!

Katatonia - Brave Murder Day (1996)

   "Brave Murder Day" by Katatonia is known as death/doom classic, that's interesting because of 2 reasons. First because it's quite late came to become a classic, and secondly because the album basically lacks death metal related themes. 

   The band's full lenght debut "Dance of December Souls" already introduced a different journey, that's more relatable to classical doom and to gothic tendencies, only the aggressive growling vocal style and the smaller focus on keyboard themes pushed them out to not take place amongst the line of epic doom bands. Their main tone was too dark for that, and the great outbreak that changed everything came by a way more unified and well composed album "Brave Murder Day". They have reached the very depths of melancholy with the strongly atmospheric sound, depressing melodies and netherworldish tone. The album sounds definitely heavier than ordinary doom metal, but the further style features more reminding to the toolbar of black metal than to death. The instruments doesn't sound too loud or noisy, especially the drumms are more powerless than usual in this style, and that gave the leading role for the melodies and the atmosphere. Therefore "Brave Murder Day" is not only heavier than most doom metal albums, but also more emotional. Still, none of these features could really refer to death metal except the vocal style, so the main style determination isn't completely correct. The album was a great milestone not only for the band, but also for the late development of the modern sound of doom. 

Pentacrostic - The Pain Tears (1992)

   "The Pain Tears" by Pentacrostic is a less known, but cultic masterpiece, straight from the depths of the infamous Brazilian underground scene.
    Unlike most extreme bands, not the intensity was their first priority, but the heaviness of their music. While plenty of others tried themselves in this direction already in the main scene, similar ambitions were new in South America that time. But Pentacrostic still completely fits into the local scene, cause their music includes features of more styles the same time, such as most South American bands. The most interesting thing is maybe to hear with how simple things they created their own genuine style. Dark atmosphere and the cawing vocal style giving an impression that could remind to black metal, but the main feeling is far heavier by the noisy sound, the excellent bass lines that could be well heard, and the slow/mid speed that's occasionly interrupted by intense hammering. This ominous and endlessly dark impression is truelly extraordinary. The synchronizing of diverse effects, like speed changes, different style features, sound and atmosphere made "The Pain Tears" an exciting album that certainly pulls down the listener into the depths of the Netherworld.

Goatlord - Reflections of the Solstice (1991)

   Goatlord was maybe the first band from those who experimented with death/doom the first time. Their debut came later than the other pioneers of this unpopular style, but the sounding suspects some really ancient origin.
   Nowadays because of that sound, the vocal style and the lyrical topics "Reflections of the Solstice" fits into black/death too. It's exaggeratedly blasphemous, and having the lack of any catchy melodies or emotional atmosphere. The slowing down doom influences extending the effect of the cruel and compromise-less feeling that they are showing. Occasional speed ups are also common, and they reminding to the most ancient bands with black metal influences. No matter the slow downs and the extended parts, it's a quite aggressive album in general. Bands which similarly involved directly or instinctly extreme genres this way, were more common in South America, but Goatlord couldn't be confused with them because they had features which lately became specific both in death/doom and black/death styles. It's definitely a unique album of extreme metal.