The Mouth of Doom: 2008

Thursday, November 13, 2008

My 13 favorite songs over twenty minutes

You might find lots of funeral doom and doom metal in this list , by nature, doom is long, slow and atmospheric. The Industrial entries of the list are based on previous literary works and the Avant-garde entries are plain weird experimentation.

13.- Surgical Sound Specimens from the Museum of Skin - Fantômas 1:14:17
Tag: avant-garde
Yes, this is the infamous track where the last twenty minutes is sound of a turntable stylus stuck in the runout groove of a record. Conceived as a soundtrack for a horror film, the concept of death explored is less romantic ad more proper of a Cronenberg Body horror film.
12.- Rite Of Finality - Asunder 50:23
Tag: funeral doom
Beautiful instrumental intro with added violins and clean guitars, enticing you into a sense of security were not by the bass in the background which looms like a dark cloud, then the full storm begins with death growls and epic instrumentation, then the epic falls into a gloomy dark ambiance with long and slow chords. the piece ends in utter desolation.
11.- Helio)))sophist - Sunn O))) 46:18
Tag: drone doom
As usual with Sunn O))), the droning background becomes mesmerizing, until we realize that we have been drawn to a land of sorrow and torture, with hidden horrors abound, biomechanical behemoths roaming, oblivious to the destruction wrought by their claws, a grey haze rather than darkness. the piece ends fading out to nothingness.

10.-Sacrilegium - Devil Doll 45:49
Tag: avant-garde
An energetic symphonic intro gives way to a choral chanting "Sacrilegium", gloomy cabaret tunes, prog-rock instrumentals, music boxes and a singing narration in a cornucopia of emotions, the piece ends with some sampling and a backmasked message.
9.-Somnium Obmutum - Estatic Fear 32:09
Tag: symphonic doom
A slow and heavy riff in a nocturnal ambient, a doom melody that gives way to a piano intermezzo before returning to the death growls, the true essence of Doom is this counterbalance, soothing vs. neurotic, the riff accompanies us in this trip through calmness and despair.
8.- Macbeth - Laibach
Tags: industrial, martial industrial 31:59
A Soundtrack based on the play by Shakespeare. Some listings separate it in tracks whileas others list it as one song. I list it as one, as the march in the introduction is revisited and expanded in the latter art of the album (I know, as a self-contained album it features leitmotivs)
7.- Die Hamletmaschine - Einstürzende Neubauten 31:47
Tag: industrial
More than a soundtrack for the play by Heiner Müller, it features the complete text of the play, this is the complete performing experience, the voices of the characters are there, Hamlet and Ofelia. As the previous Shakespeare reinterpretation, this is a timeless piece from its own world where the same rules apply to tragedies.
6.- Demontain - Ufomammut 28:07
Tag: stoner doom
Ufomammut's psychedelic grooves are given plenty of room to breathe, heaviness and soothing ambients are balanced, you could say that all of Ufomammut's tricks are here.
5.- The Garden - Cathedral 26:59
Tag: doom metal
Classical doomsters understand the scope of long compositions and in this case Cathedral takes the opportunity to paint a Hieronymous Bosch-like garden with all colors available, a female voice, seemingly out of place, introduces us to this epic 9 part tragicomedy of glory and decay, from birth to death.
4.- Avide de sens - Ataraxie 24:00
Tag: funeral doom
An ending that never seems to end, the main riff could otherwise be use as the ending of any other song, but this is just the beginning. When I listen to this song walking down the street there is a kind of background droning sound that makes me think there is something behind me. (my favorite time to listen Funeral Doom is walking while it rains), the calm places just seem to enhance the despair-filled growls that ensue, the energy level is greater and stronger, the piece ends in a slow decay at ties to the next song.

3.-Funeral of Mankind - Night Must Fall 22:24
Tag: funeral doom
If all of mankind is being buried and we're attending the funeral, who's growling at us?
Inhuman rituals and chants, hidden entities, mankind has receded to be replaced by others, were they human once? were they born that way?
2.-Missing - Until Death Overtakes Me 21:43
Tag: funeral doom
A delicate dirge before meeting the denizens of the grave, the dead have some excellent taste on the music they choose for their own wakes.
1.-Cirith Ungol - Reverend Bizarre 21:10
Tag: doom metal
Tolkien inspired despair, it follows Sam and Frodo through Cirith Ungol, it describes the death and decay they encounter while trying to grasp to the tiniest of hopes. Ash nazg durbatulûk, ash nazg gimbatul, ash nazg thrakatulûk, agh Burzum-ishi krimpatul.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

My Thirteen Favorite Doom songs

* Whore - 13
Tag:sludge doom

Unapologetic, dirty female death growls.

13 Norge - Thorr's Hammer
Tag: death-doom metal

Atmospheric, gloomy and romantic. I have yet to find another doom song where the female clean vocals are more evil and spooky than the death growls (also female) in the foreground.

12 Sea Hag - Burning Witch
Tag: funeral doom

Hag-like death growls chanting of despair in a definitive funeral ocean.

11 Solitary Fallen Angel - Left Hand Solution
Tag:doom metal
He rides a pitch-black unicorn
Wishing he was never born

Melancholic dirge in two voices, a clean female voice against a delicate female chant.

10 Penta Imperium (Doom Empire Version), Penta Imperium (Sick Funeral Version) - Aura HiemiS
Tag: doom metal
Covered by: Dadelos Anrete Anu Ed Larenuf
Don´t you leave me
Don´t you leave me alone,
I can give you
All what you are seeking

A cry of despair in two versions, one just before and other after the grave, the Doom Empire version features clean, passionate male vocals while the Sick Funeral version features a gloomy death growl.

9 The Hour Of Death - Reverend Bizarre
Tag:doom metal
My God have mercy upon me in this hour of death I pray for thee to take my life instead of the one I so dearly love

A heavy and oppressing riff that could easily compete with entry number one of this list. A long landscape that borders in Funeral Doom were not for the clean and powerful male voice.

8 Rain and Twilight Innocence - Novembers Doom
Tag:death-doom metal
The Only way to cleanse my soul is drown my dirt with rain

Your dreams inspire me to be the best man I can be

Rain is a heavy metal storm, the death growl never rests, a monster opening for The Novella Reservoir, a dense death-doom atmosphere were not for a small calm paradise in the middle of the song, that foreshadows the inclusion of Twilight Innocence, a gentle ballad amidst the brutality of the rest of the album. This is a song that I would play for the woman I marry, definitively.

7 Christian Woman - Type O Negative
Tag:gothic-doom metal
Covered by: Graveworm
For her lust she'll burn in hell, her soul done medium well

In my opinion, the true spirit of doom lies in complex musical landscapes, both frantic and laconic. In this song the struggle of spirituality and carnaLity paint an internal monologue told in clean, almost sarcastic vocals and a male chorus.

6 Dying Inside - Saint Vitus
Tag:stoner doom
I can't control my addiction
I've tried time and time again
I'm losing all my friends and lovers
Alcohol knows it's gonna win

The original Doom has also addiction at its core, not only ontological depression, but the cry of an unromantic addict; the alcoholic.
The male vocals are not grandiose, but dead honest and self-deprecating.

5 Your River - My Dying Bride
Tag:doom metal
It's sad that, in our blindness, we gather thorns for flowers.
Your river holds a feast of danger.
The suffering you have had to bear.

Though My Dying Bride continued down the way of Gothic Metal, Turn Loose the Swans is a Doom Metal opus, a complex introduction leading to an explosive confession. The path that the clean male vocals follow are that of depression.

4 The Cry of Silence - Draconian
Tag:gothic doom metal
I have a thousand reasons to die and many million tears to cry

Romantic and gloomy, a conversation between a clean male voice, a female vocal and a death growl, the length and the complexity create a landscape of infinite sadness.

3 Seeds of the Desolate - Solitude Aeturnus
Mirror of Sorrow - Solitude Aeturnus
Tag:doom metal
Covered by:Worship
A beautiful mirror of radiant splendor
As ominous as the autumn moon
It brought upon me endless wonder
Yet spoke of some unknown doom

A beautiful Doom ballad, melancholy abound, an almost lovecraftian lament. Clean and passionate male vocals bring frenzy to the quiet waters.

2 Solitude - Candlemass
Covered By: Swallow the Sun, Anorexia Nervosa, Desire, Blodsrit
Tag:doom metal
I'm sitting here alone in darkness waiting to be free lonely and forlorn I am crying I long for my time to go death is just life Please let me die in solitude

The definitive Doom metal hymn, here every element pertaining to Doom is properly crafted, every band covering it has added a layer of dimension to the original.

1 Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath
Covered by:Amber Asylum, Type O Negative, Wraith of the Ropes, Throne of Ahaz, Iced Earth, Sabbra Cadabra, Ad Hominem,

Here is where it all started, the riff that defines heavy metal, the riff that, if Tommi Iommi had not hurt his fingers and downtuned his guitar would have created a parallel, metalless universe. The original gloom and passion brought by an impossibly young Ozzy. The parameter from which every pother band is and will be measured.

Hand of Doom - Black Sabbath
Covered by:Isis, Orange Goblin, Slayer, Eyehategod, HIM, Cephalic Carnage
Tag: proto-doom

Would the genre be called Sabbath Metal were not for this song?