Witchsorrow - God Curse Us (2012)

DOOM TO THE BONE. 

 

To begin with, it is obvious to everyone who cares for the development of the doom metal scene that this genre is currently in its heyday (if you look at the past twenty years). Therefore, many new bands emerge - some decent, some really crappy. With the beginning of this review I'd like to point out that Witchsorrow are of the few bands that can bear the flag of doom with pride.

Everything about these guys is doom. In the good, real sense. From the name, to the cover of the record to the most important aspect - the music. I'm going to shoot straight - this album is for the keenest doom metallers out there - SLOW as fuck and it might not be appealing for the ordinary metalhead. No sludge inspired vocals, no "vintage" sounding girls covered with leather. This is pure, slow doom in the veins of Reverend Bizarre. Even the fastest song on this album is like a snail, so beware. There are many bands who tend to combine fast with slow songs in their doom records in order not to bore the listener. There are very few bands like Cathedral who have the balls to produce records like "Forest of Equilibrium". Here is where we come to the point - Witchsorrow definitely have the balls to do that, because this is perfect slow doom with no compromise.

I'm not going to judge the songs seperately, because all of them are really good songs, but here are some details. "Aurora Atra" is a fantastic opener, because it prepares you for what is going to follow. If you don't like it - don't listen to the next songs. It is very slow, with dreamy, but heavy vocals. And last but not least, it has the typical fast solo in the end of the song, which is very common in doom metal and especially in most Witchsorrow songs. It is easy for one to notice that most songs follow this song structure - slow riffage, tortured vocals and then bum! super fast solo. Which is good, because it apperently works. The next song "God curse us" is also perfect doom, because it serves ideally for its purpose - it is fantastically slow, but totally not boringl. Also, the repeated verse "God curse us, everyone" could be a highlight at live shows. "Master of Nothing" is probably the slowest this album can become. You would like this song if you love really slow stuff, which I especially do. But I guess it can be quite boring for someone who is not into that kind of stuff. The next songs are really gloomy, slow and mythical. So the whole record follows pretty much the same path.



As people say, there are passangers for every train. If you like heavy doom with pure vocals, this is your record!