Alright, a few thins before I turn in for the night (BTW this forum seriously needs to be higher up on the forum listen... just sayin')
-Trouble -
Psalm 9: This album is one of my favourite
Doom Metal releases of all time, because what it does, it does incredibly well. I get the feeling a lot of metal heads would write them off because they have pro christian lyrics. Trouble obviously take a lot of influence from the original masters,
Black Sabbath, but while they have those slow, oppressive doomy moments, what sets this ahead is that the band has a tendancy to those in these faster, bludgeoning riffs. What makes the album so great is how excellent the riffs are, and how well the band alternates between those
Two varying riff styles seamlessly. (opener "The Tempter" showcases this perfectly) The drumming is very solid, creative while backing up the guitars, and while not everybody will love the vocals - they're sort of a screechy Ozzy-type deal (emphasis on the sort of), they're awesome in their own right. A truly fantastic album.
-Candlemass - Tales of Creation: I'm kind of surprised that this album isn't more highly regarded. It's not as good as the first
Two records, but the first
Two records are brilliant anyway. This does have a couple of inconsistent moments to it (i'm not big on "Into the Unfathomed Tower" - it's basically a lead guitar piece, and it might've been great had it developed its melodic
Ideas better - and the re-recording of "under The Oak", which lacks that emotional
Resonance of the original), but the good
Far outweighs the bad in this instance. The riffs are fresh and heavy as
Hell,
Messiah Marcolin sounds great on this album, and the lead guitar otherwise is some of the best in the band's entire history. "Dark Recollection", "At the Edge of Heaven", and "A Tale of Creation" (especially the last track) are simply incredible songs.
