Their newest offering was recommended to me by someone who holds a special place in my dark and lonely heart and the album cover of Pale Existence with the overruling color being blue, for a plethora of personal reasons related to this individual, I had to take a step back before I could review it, because of the emptiness and sadness I still feel relating to this situation.  So how the hell is that for an opening for a doom-death metal review, folks? A little personal mumbo jumbo coming from yours truly.  So yes, Ocean of Grief, so impressed me with their emotive leanings I went back and scored their prior releases and was thoroughly impressed to no end.

Pale Existence is 7 songs in 47 minutes and the longest track on the album, at over eight minutes, “Poetry for the Dead”, starts us on this depressive journey.  The eerie opening keyboards sets the stage for the rest of this album and then the music lumbers forth, then gets back into an atmospheric lull before the vocals come growling forward at the 2.23 mark.  The melodies are breathtaking and super emotive and the undercurrent of doom death heaviness is ever-present.  The vocals are perfectly growled and the double bass drums kicking in a minute later add that little extra.  More atmospheric and softer moments rear their head with some classic metal guitar soloing that for some reason reminds me of some of the sounds on some early Fates Warning albums.  The heaviness at the 5.50 mark is excellent and more guitar solos and the song trails off.  What an epic opening song.

“Imprisoned Between Worlds” is such an excellent title for a song, coming from a band that plays this particular genre of metal.  The song is atmospheric, hopeless and very depressing.  Trust me you will be whipping out the first My Dying Bride ep and debut album, same with early Anathema too, after you listen to Ocean of Grief.  The song gets into mellower moments while building up to the epic 3-minute mark which definitely screams for you to wallow in your misery and filth.  The heaving and deliberate heaviness returns and Charalabos Oikonomopoulos’ growling vocals are unnerving, as they come in and out of this song.  He is good at what he does, the tone does get a bit one-dimensional as there are no other tones he uses, however, they do go well with the music.  “Cryptic Constellations” has more of that double bass action and some of the isolated moments at the four-minute mark, with the atmospheric buildup and ending heavy again, make this an excellent listening experience.

Ocean of Grief’s Pale Existence is an excellent doom death metal album with many other areas of interest surrounding their sound as the melodies, heaviness and song writing all encapsulate the feelings of loss, depression, hopelessness and sadness.

In some respect, I find solace in this type of music and definitely over the last several months I have gone back to this album multiple times, all the while wishing some of those personal moments, I mentioned in my opening, were resolved and that individual was still with me…But alas good reader, if some of my emotive rants, help you to understand this type of music or want to investigate Ocean of Grief, then go for it.  I have not had a band conjure up such internal emotions in quite some time and this is an excellent album.

But in 2020, Colorado’s Fires In the Distance released their killer debut, Echoes of Deep November, a more melodic take on death/doom with some very nicely done orchestral arrangements from guitarist Yegor Savon.

Well on the all-important second album, Savon called in some additional help with some of the arrangements with Randy Slaugh (who has helped out with some string arrangements on The Devin Townsend Project and Unearth) and Mac Christensen, whom I could find nothing else about. As well as a full-string quartet.  to render those arrangements. And boy does it show.

Savon and co were no slouches, but Air Not Meant For Us, is exponentially better from start to finish than the debut. And not just because of the heavily increased string/orchestral/piano use, which adds some absolutely gorgeous atmosphere to some already brilliant melodic/melancholic death/doom. Everything has been upped: the songwriting, the vocals and the absolutely massive production are also beefed up.

Opener “Harbingers” immediately delivers the goods and shows off the new orchestral elements with some stellar, stirring strings and piano backing the steady lumber. And the gorgeous little piano refrain that arises around 4 and 7 minutes in, is simply wondrous. It sets the bar pretty high for the rest of the album.

Luckily, the next few songs are up to the task. “Wisdom of the Falling Leaves” opens with a somber cello, before a thunderous, more urgent Insomnium-styled gait and a melancholic/melodic riff to die for.  Again, a couple of lovely string refrains break up the hefty lope with killer results.

“Crumbling Pillars of Tranquillity” brings a more tampered doomy plod, but then there is a bit of an anomaly for me with “Adrift, Beneath the Listless Waves”, which is an instrumental number. I never really cared for instrumentals, but “Adrift” is utterly and knee-wiltingly perfect. With a chord progression similar to John Murphy’s “Adagio on D Minor” from the Sunshine movie, but with added strings and piano, it gets you right in the gut.

The next two songs have the tall order of following up basically 5 perfect melodic doom-death songs as “Psalm of the Merciless” is a pretty standard death/doom mope, but closer “Idiopathic Despair” almost recreates the brilliance of the album’s lead-off tracks, with an Insomnium vibe again, but still flocked in the album’s amazing string and piano work.

With Air Not Meant For Us, Fires in the Distance has catapulted itself into elite status with a second album that most bands dream of, and is going to be in the conversation for album of the year at a lot of publications I imagine. Definitely this one.

With that in mind, they get one hell of a start with two absolute bangers to start, what’s essentially the title track, “1696,” which sets the stone for the fittingly Rotting Christ-esque “White Christ,” which features Sakis Tolis. The vocal tradeoff between him and Nillo is stunningly impactful. Of course, the band employs their trademark mourning, sorrowful lead guitar work throughout. This track is a truly stunning creation and not only one of the best on this album, but of their career.

The next track, “Godforsaken,” has gorgeous, guest female vocals from Johanna Kurkela. As the track starts with them, you get to hear them immediately. You get to hear them twice before Nillo makes his recognizable voice known. It’s a long track at over 8 minutes but goes quickly. While the lighter parts of what makes the band great are certainly present, the furious drumming of Markus Hirvonen keeps everything moving quickly. The quieter moment about 5 minutes in, with almost spoken vocals, slowed percussion, and beautiful guitar lines lead into a somber clean vocals section by Ville Friman, which then leads back into a heavier section with growls and cleans again. If you wanted to show someone how Insomnium sounds, direct them here.

Another one of the lengthier cuts is track 5, “Starless Paths.” When reviewing death doom, I frequently refer to the balance of dark and light these bands craft. Perhaps no one does this as masterfully as Insomnium. There’s this sense of calm always battling the heavier moments in the foreground. It frequently comes with hearing the drums and the riff but also having those beautiful, mournful guitar passages peeking over it. Few bands also know how to make an 8-minute track have so many movements and feel like it takes half the time. Nillo switching effortlessly between his growls and spoken word adds to this whole exactly what’s needed. Of course, there are keyboards in there with around 3 minutes remaining.

Near the end of the album, a much shorter track called “The Unrest,” contains only spoken word and clean vocals, leaving it as nothing more than an interlude leading into the final track, “The Rapids.” Before even hearing this, I thought this referred to the place where the men threw their prospective witches to see if they could swim. The song itself is a perfect closer, encompassing everything the band does well.

There lies the issue, however. All of the songs sound exactly how you expect them. At this point, Insomnium is who they are. However, before you write off this album, keep in mind that’s not always a bad thing. In this case, it isn’t. They’ve written eight excellent new tunes, and of the several times I have heard this album, I always want to hear it in full. Sure, it’s 8 songs and over 50 minutes, so it has every opportunity to wear out its welcome.

I like this album and can happily report it’s their best since One for Sorrow. That’s exactly what I wanted from them and a new album. It’s impossible to deny the formula works and here is one of the finest examples. This probably means that every other outlet that would praise them if they made an album full of fart sounds based on Moby Dick, will probably hate it. It’s okay to be wrong sometimes and to give this album the hype it deserves.

Deep vocals, crunchy guitars, layers of somber melody and delicate swathes of keyboards render this too short, 5 song affair with utterly perfect Finnish mope and lope that compares to the likes of primarily Insomnium, Noumena, Wolfheart and such with its balance of lumbering doom metal and melodic death metal.

Founder and front man Casey Hurd, who started Hinayana as a solo project, knows what he wants Hinayana to sound like, has surrounded himself with a solid cast of newcomers that all complement Hurd’s consistently Finnish vision. The opening  title track sets the bar and tone with immediately identifiable influences delivered confidently with stirring, melancholic  riffs and just enough ambience to have a relaxing, but stern aura.

“Cold Conception” delivers more of the same, but with some Wolfheart-y blast beats and former Tengger Cavalry front man Nature Ganganbaigal adding some horsehead fiddle. “Yet Here I Wait Forever” is a throwaway instrumental interlude before “In Sacred Delusion” features Toni Toivonen from Hanging Garden on guest vocals and is more moody,  doomier track which continues for closer “Pitch Black Noise”, a classically paced, Finnish sounding, melodically despondent death/doom number.

These guys are definitely a band to watch in the US scene as they have absolutely nailed the chosen Finnish sound and I look forward to a full length album of the same polished, confident style in the hear future.

Apparently starting out as more of a straight forward folk/pagan/black metal act, Vorna (a character from Finnish folklore) has spread their wings, added some impressive keyboards and added an air of instantly recognizable Finnish melodic death metal and despondency (i.e Insomnium) to their blackened sound. And it does indeed result in something that pulls a little something from their above mentioned peers. I’d even add some of Sentenced’s sadness to the description, just listen the opening riff of “Aalloista” or start of “Sateet”.

The album impressed me initially due to opener “Toinen”, where a gorgeous piano/keyboard waltz graces the chorus and has me pulled in right away. And while the rest of the album never quite gets that spectacular again, it comes close, and there’s enough solid material and moments to keep it an intriguing, thoughtful listen. The sprawling,  aforementioned “Aalloista”, more triumphant  throes of “Viratulet” and delicate shimmer and dramatic build of “Sateet”, certainly are worth a listen, especially for fans of the more morose Finnish tones, as they meld them with a more black metal back bone very effectively.

All the lyrics are in Finnish, and the clean vocals of Vesa Salovaara have a nice somber timbre to them amid his harsh blackened rasps. It all has a gorgeous, crisp production and should keep fans sated until Insomnium’s Heart Like a Grave Drops later in the autumn.

I poked my head down into an oubliette once while touring Warwick Castle in the UK, and it was an awful little jolt to my imagination. I took a deep breath and wondered how many souls had perished and rotted away in that little dark space, ending their lives in the same state in which they started – fetal and alone.

The mind-warping oblivion of Ruins of Beverast, Portal or Deathspell Omega would probably better capture the misery of actually rotting away in an oubliette, but USBM act Oubliette is a little livelier than that. The sound is somewhere between melancholy acoustic-driven darkness (think Fen, Agalloch, or October Falls) and melodic death/doom like Rapture and Insomnium. In other words: gorgeous, flowing, melodic black metal that is more likely to make you swoon with sadness than succumb to insanity.

Hailing from Tennessee, the band features a member of Aether Realm (their excellent Viking melodeath release, One Chosen by the Gods, hit my year-end list last year) and one from Inferi (who released a strong tech/melodeath album this year), with both male and female vocalists. Both of those bands are intensely melodic but quite different – one rousing and triumphant, the other chaotic and contorted – while Apparitions occupies a softer, more thoughtful sphere.

That’s not to say that this is a mellow journey like something from Les Discrets, though I certainly hear a lot of their nostalgic, heartbreaking chill through Apparitions. Opening track “Whispers” shudders beneath the weight of thunderous blastbeats, with forceful vocals riding high in the mix and chiming ambience and tremolo layered deep below – buried like in a you-know-what. Keyboards are graceful rather than Grand Guignol-garish (unlike so many other 90s acts), and the overall effect is dramatic without ever becoming cheesy or overbearing. Very enjoyable. The track settles into loping, mid-paced death/doom later on, and carries forward into “The Fog,” which, with its gauzy atmosphere, rolling acoustics and rousing melodies, recalls a black metal version of Insomnium.

“Withering Dreams” is one of the standouts here, most notably because of the seamless way it changes from a stately Alcest-like ballad to a more aggressive melodeath/doom anthem. Guest vocalist Egan O’Rourke from Daylight Dies does a wonderful job in a duet here with female vocalist Emily Low – seriously, when was the last time you heard vocal harmonies in any form of black metal – and both guitarists have plenty of opportunity to show off with tremolo melodies that coil, twist and soar through the song’s serpentine second half. Breathtaking stuff. Another high point comes late in “Howls of Death,” with more Damnation-era Opeth cues briefly shining through the gloom before the song blackens again and races towards a frosty finish.

Emily Low’s lilting soprano also weaves through “A Beautiful Suicide,” complementing the flowing tremolo melodies and bringing ethereal grace to an already lovely and somber lament. She also haunts the opening and bridges of “Creatures of the Endless Slumber,” one of the speediest tracks on the album, and one which recalls the relentless attack of classic Light’s Bane-era Dissection. Low deserves the accolades currently being piled on Myrkur, plus the metal segments here are far more accomplished and nuanced. Apparitions closes with the lengthy and ambitious “Palingenesis,” which shifts assuredly between the band’s two sounds – clattery aggression and mournful elegance – before peaking halfway through with an Enslaved-like series of stuttering riffs, and then completes the odyssey with satisfying heft and scope.

I had originally gone searching for another Oubliette when I came across this one. That one hailed from the UK, but appropriately enough, seems to have been forgotten. This Oubliette, on the other hand, deserves a lot more recognition and attention. Fans of the acts I mentioned above or anyone who prizes both melancholy and malevolence in their black metal will likely enjoy this as much as I did. Excellent find, and sure to make my year-end list in a few months.

This is the third full-length from St Petersburg’s Epitimia, a band listed as ambient black metal on the Metal Archives. I haven’t heard their previous releases, so I have to assume that’s correct, but on Faces of Insanity, their sound is more like a mix of the lush, melodic death/doom of Swedish and Finnish acts like Katatonia, Swallow the Sun and Rapture, and the rustic, naturalistic black metal of Eastern European acts like Drudkh, Negura Bunget and Johann Wolfgang Pozoj.

As Faces of Insanity starts – all keening, layered and plaintive guitars melodies with nostalgic, creaky mid-90s production – I think I’m in for a shadowy hour of meandering mope, but then “Epikrisis I: Altered State of Consciousness” (the first of six “Epikrisis”-prefixed tracks) breaks out into a speedy, thrashy bit, and some female vox drift in to complement the crying guitar line. Interesting details, but so far the most remarkable thing here is the distant tone and recording, which sounds as if it’s been decaying and lingering in the air in some dusty, forgotten room, and now comes flooding out as the door is finally opened…