Hesper Payne - Unclean Rituals (Works of Ein, 2010)

God, that album cover is unsettling. Those nipples are possibly the worst thing to ever have entered my consciousness. But I guess the despair that is slowly being injected into my soul by those nipple-demons is appropriate seeing as this is a doom/death metal album. And that's pretty much all I know about it. I downloaded this for free here after having it brought to my attention by Metal Sucks. I jumped right on it since doom/death is probably my favorite of all metal sub-genres, even though it's probably one of the genres I listen to the least. I have no idea why. Maybe this will change that.

Commentary:

• Now when you have a song with the same name as your band, what came first? The song title of the band name?
• And it's kind of weird that this isn't on your first album.
• I'm kind of bored. Not a good sign.
• Digging the guitar tone though.
• Going from a grindcore album to a doom album is kind of jarring.
• It feels so slow.
• Now there's something to groove to.
• Grimnity? Really?
• This lyricist has a really interesting vocabulary.
• Oh, they said the album title! Take a shot!
• Whoa, moss writhes?
• I could totally be a metal vocalist.
• I do not know what half the words in that verse mean.
• Isn't it weird when you suddenly notice something in the background of a song that's been there the whole time?
• Kirk Hammett?
• I wonder what's harder: finding the right harmony or finding the right disharmony.
• This may be the first doom song I would describe as being an epic.
• Layering different vocal styles always gets me.
• This is one amazing interlude.
• This one of the few times that I've enjoyed an album more as it goes on.
• Usually I'm really into the first few songs and then my interest begins to wane.
• It's like doomy Deftones.
• Of course the last song is longer than ten minutes.
• Old Katatonia style riff, fuck yeah.

It took me a little while but I really got into this album. They did a great job of not letting it get boring which is a really easy trap for a doom album. The variety of riff and vocal styles kept it from feeling stagnant. Also, the lyrics were awesome, told some amazingly depressing stories. Again, you can download it for free here.

Krom approves. And it's kind of sad. Or would be. You know, if he had the capacity for any emotion besides anger and being awesome.

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