Show of Bedlam : "Transfiguration"

It's always ambitious to open your album with the longest song. But these guys continue to surprise.
 I was not expecting the female vocals that start this song off. Very murky and dissonant before they commit to the doom glazed groove. When they return after going back into the abyss for another groove there is a more nu-metal like feel bubbling under things. The fact the lyrics  are overtly personal it taps into that Korn like place where metal bands really got into their daddy issues. For a 12 minute song it's pretty painless so they are doing something right. The second song is not as long , but it also doesn't really lock into something that grabs my ear aside from the "hell is a girl wetting her bed". The title track is more of an interlude with a sample running though it.

"Hall of Mirrors" doesn't introduce anything that we haven't heard in the first few songs. There is a more sludge like lumber to this one than doom, maybe because it's slightly more uptempo. For what it is this song is fine enough. Not blown away but not having an adverse reaction either. There are a few more little interlude blips but the last song is the ten plus minute "Easter Water". It starts off on better footing with more of an ominous feeling.This is much darker than the previous songs so it me waiting to see if the vocals will work with or against the music. They actually breeze in and work with until she has to go into her more dramatic angsty declarations . This one is doomier than the rest but it begins to lose me in it's drone and her angry chanting doesn't help me.

I will round this one down to an 8, as the bratty nu-metal cheer-leading of the vocals when they went unrestrained could be a little much, but they certainly tried . They did capture some great dark moods with genuine anger behind it. Not many bands are still around doing what these guys are doing to that gets them points in my book as they are following their own path like it or not. If you want doom, but with more suburban colors to then check these guys out.   It came out earlier in the month on sentient ruin laboratories .



3.3