Writing a standout doom metal album is a difficult task nowadays. This isn’t due to an overall lack of quality within the genre’s modern progenitors, but because of the antithesis; more and more excellent doom metal albums seem to enter the running for our year ends lists with each passing year. MONARCH! (Monarch from here on out) has never struggled with this endeavor over the course of their 15-year career, particularly when it comes to their recent output with the eminent Profound Lore Records. Yet, while Sabbracadaver was certainly a doom highlight in 2014, Never Forever sees the band returning this year with their most colossal and grandiose album to date, presenting a masterful synthesis of drone metal with doom’s more macabre characteristics. We sat down with the band to discuss the process of writing their latest epic, as well as a handful of other topics related to their past, present and future within the shifting landscape of modern doom.
There’s a great deal of irony in the latest album title of instrumental post-metal trio Sannhet. While their new album is called So Numb, it would seem that this is the most evocative song writing we’ve seen from the group to date. The emotions that this album can rouse from slumber deep within the listener are not just your simple “ooh’s” and “ahh’s” that come along with music that catch and impress the ear, but rather ones of blinding ecstasy and immobilizing sorrow. In crafting this collection of songs, Sannhet have taken the approach of the painter. The group uses every drum hit, bass plunk and guitar strum to paint a picture with textures and colors that are just as interesting and thought out as the work they comprise the entirety of.
When Scion A/V started getting into the metal game a few years ago, I just thought it was going to be a passing fad; a cheap way to score some extra publicity in a new deomographic. While that may be true, I have to give them a hand; they’ve been…
Pallbearer Sorrow and Extinction 01. Foreigner 02. Devoid Of Redemption 03. The Legend 04. An Offering Of Grief 05. Given To The Grave [02/21/12] [Profound Lore] Doom metal is a genre with which I’m just getting my feet wet. I’ve not delved too deep into the pool that is this…