November is Doom- Sermon : " Till Birth Do Us Part"

 

This Turkish band starts things off with ambiance, before pounding into some gritty low-end heavy doom. The vocals are a low funeral doom-like growl. I like how they are recorded in a way that captures the blown out rumble of feedback. They have more get up and go than most funeral doom. There are the occasional sung vocals that are crooned in a low baritone vocal that will be compared to Type O Negative. Turkey is not the first place I would think of doom, coming from but this band has a pretty good grasp of it. At almost nine minutes the opener is also one of the album's longer songs. 

"Sliver Splinter" finds a wave of double bass driving the song. The rest of the band is wallowing in despair. The vocals serve less purpose in this song, with the galloped riff pulling the song together. "Flawless Entropy" opens with a violin creeping around the unusual nature of the arrangements. The vocals serve less purpose in the opening verse. There is a spoken section that follows this. This band works best when they are not trudging, but driving forward with intent, this band works  It is not until four songs in that I suspect the drums are programmed. At times the guitar solos feel like overplaying, though they try to stay melodic. 

Things become increasingly despondent on "Cerulean" , though the song drones a great deal. Midway the lethargy begins to overtake it. They do care about writing songs, even when allowing them to wander off.  "Destined to Decline" gets off to a more somber stomp.; There is a more exotic feel to the breakdown of the verses. The creepy sections of the guitar smooth out into a more relaxing vibration that passes over. They managed to avoid the songs taking on a uniform feel despite the slow doomy pacing. The vocal production helps with this. The drummer is also pretty badass and keeps things shifting along. "Gnostic Dissensuss" has more of an industrial feel to it, it reminds me of death metal from the 90s. It's catchy an the album's best song. The last song a more commanding take on death doom. It is dark without being oppressive, as they give the song more room to breathe. I will give this album an 8.5, it's dark and dripping with doom vibes, they are doing their own thing and not wearing their influences to firmly on their sleeves.