November Doom- Profetus : 'the Sadness of Time Passing"

This Finnish band has always been one of the heaviest funeral doom bands. This time there is way more funeral as  the keyboards open the album " The production dialed in a  warmer more organic guitar sound I can tell I am going to like this new Profetus better than the Slow album I had to give a rest as it was putting me asleep as I was trying to write. While less riffy than Loss' newer work, they work off delicate guitar melodies  that haunt you. The vocals are similar as they are a low rasp, but not as low of a gurgle. Without sitting down to listen to this it can sound like these songs are running together and everything sounds the same. It took a second listen to this album before they really stood out. The second song the vocals are spoken in a low voice and there is lots of monks chanting, so sounds like an evil church.

The 3rd song finds the organ more prominent in the mix and the guitars playing subtle melodies. I think the bigger organic drum sound helps set them apart."Northern Crown' finds us back in the creepy church again.  It is just spoke word and pipe organ. Six minutes in a ghostly choir like vocals leads us to when the metal crashes back down. The last song begins just as "Northern Crown" before it. Tine does pass when this song plays , but I think the Sadness of the creepy church would have  been more truth in advertising. There are more grandiose swell than sorrowful mourning. The drums pick up a little as the song progresses. Far from being death metal of anything of the sort, though I can appreciate an adherence to doom.

"Tiamia" might have taken them in a more metallic motion, but all in all these songs do not shift much for the model of what this band does  They are good at what they do. What they do makes me appreciate bands like Evoken , Esoteric & even Mournful Congregation who write songs that stand on different legs rather than being one frequency. The frequency on this album does find the band progressing and growing. I enjoyed listening to this album , but I am unsure how much I would return to this records outside of what I have already heard. A good records is separated from the  great records as it does not emphatically meet the question of would like to listen to this again or do I need to listen to this again with a excited need. I will round it down to an 8.   

Tyranny : "Aeons In Tectonic Interment"

It must be the drinking, but the Finnish do not play around when it comes to the extremes and vile rawness of their metal. More renown for death metal and black metal this doom duo is pretty brutal , as they are crawling up from  the dirtier end of Funereal Doom with this guttural piece of filth. Members of Corpse Seed and Profetus  dig up these riffs that are almost more frequencies than notes. It crawls along with depressing hesitancy as doom is supposed to and if you had to unearth the bands influences  Evoken comes to mind , but they are much less focused on melody and dynamics, but have captured an ethereal creepiness.It's grim ridden with vocals that sound like the gurgle of a sewer in hell. This is not to say it's all fuzzed out low tuned grinding guitar thunking around as there are moments of chilling ambiance that drone into the dark as well. Like most albums that go to extremes with the heaviness. The first song blow you away then it up to the band to prove they can write songs as well, seeing that this is their second full-length you would hope they would.  The songs do run a little on the long side, but nothing to excessive. They do lurch back and hang on the crash of the guitar against the drums , before building "A Voice Given Unto Ruin" into anything. Before even the midway point it collapses into Gregorian chanting.  They come back even harder, with a sludged rumble.Sometimes it feels like you are listening more to vibrations than notes beings played.

Since the guitarist also plays in Profetus, there is little wonder as to the  density to their sound.Hellish screams echo out of "Preparation of a Vessel" that pours out of a well of an equally unsettling din of guitar more hellish than half the black metal bands who are trying to hard to be evil.It's a dark dank tomb of mutilation, but it is also so murky that it never feels like a song develops here.There is a more sorrowful cry to the guitars that open "Stygian Enclave". It takes about five and half minute for a distance melody to form and the song to find direction.They balance the grave yard crushing with some howling atmosphere. "Bells of the Black Ballisca" churns at the same pace as the other, not as well formed or musical as the song before it. But very oppressive and if that is all you need from your doom then you have it here in spades. I am always hungry for doom...funereal doom and they come closer to satisfying this need than many bands who claim to be doom and are sludge or death metal. This album goes to the extreme to grind you down with its weight. But some songs are just better than other and without more dynamics the songs bleed together.It is heavy as fuck and if you need your heavy as fuck slow as well then this might be for you. I'll give it a 7.5This album comes out mid september


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