Band's List Doom Metal The Prophecy (UK) Into the Light

Wow. What an album. Here we have a prime slab of death/doom that seriously couldn't get much better. I'm apt to say that this may be the best (predominantly) doom album I've heard.

The name of the game here is juxtaposition. Perfectly done clean vocals counter the throaty growls also found here, just as the distorted, down tuned guitar chords clash with the beautiful guitar melodies so abundant here. Similarly, Chinese crash cymbals(Chinese crash is used more than enough on this album). Double bass drum rolls oppose the sedate, post rock drumming found on other tracks.

Along with these instrumental clAshes are two basic song styles: the drifting calm kind, and the more aggressive death metal style kind. Both melody and harshness are found in both, but to different extents. The calmer ones come off with a certain element of post rock after repeat listens, while the more aggressive sound like typical death/doom with extraordinarily good melodies and musicianship. Which brings us to the next point: musicianship.

This band's musicianship is stellar. The ability to flawlessly play down tuned doom and gentle rock with any amount of continuity is rare indeed. To create an entire album so proficient in both is perhaps one-in-a-kind. The vocals also manage to fit this diverse sound scheme. The vocalist not only has an uncannily good growl which he uses awesomely, but also has a very decent singing voice which he uses to great effect in both slower and aggressive songs (see Belief Means Nothing and Into the Light).

On top of this wonderful sonic diversity are lyrics good enough to give this album meaning. They may not be the best ever written, but they consistently get the point across, and sometimes sound just plain powerful (especially in combination with the vocalist's aforementioned ability to effectively punctuate). My personal favorite example of this is:

"I'll take you
Down under
Down with me
Into eternal suffering
I'll kill your soul
Forever more"

From Belief Means Nothing. They're not flashy or pretentious, but they sound cool as hell and get the point across.
My final comment on this album as a whole is that it uses nontraditional ideas pretty well. "Echoes" has a bluesy solo amidst the post rockish song and ends in a dissonance of sorts. This use of dissonance is always a nice touch, and can be found in a few other spots on this album like the very sparse, drum-driven pre chorus of Belief Means Nothing.

The only reason I can't give this album a perfect score is the sixth song, "All is Lost." It's not bad as a whole, but it has some annoying moments that kind of kill the song.