Day: October 23, 2017

Let’s start from the assumption that there is doom and doom; we find the classic one, which starts from Black Sabbath and then sublimate in bands like Candlemass and St.Vitus, or its subsequent derivation more extreme and funereal that three saps from Thergothon and immediately after Skepticism, and then branch out in streams catacombal or painfully melodic. Personally, when I call myself a fan of doom I refer to this second fringe, but I can not deny my devotion to those historical bands that have covered the heavy metal of the eighties with epic darkness. Among the worthy heirs of the Swedish and American masters certainly among the most credible appeared in the new century are the Chilean Procession, authors of two magnificent albums as Destroyers Of The Faith and To Reap Heavens Apart: Led by Felipe Plaza, guitarist gifted with an evocative and personal vocal timbre, our band, although having moved to Sweden a long time ago, wants to strongly emphasize how much the roots of their doom reside in South America, so much so that they decided to record this new album, titled Doom Decimation, right in Santiago Del Chile. As I’m used to repeat, it is not in this genre that you have to look for innovative pushes, since the focus for the listener is represented by the ability of the musicians to touch the right emotional chords: The well-established couple Plaza/Botarro (together also in the excellent and more epic Capilla Ardiente) has amply demonstrated in the past to be able to reach this goal, hitting it also in this occasion although it must be said, in all honesty, that Doom Decimation appears slightly more opaque than the two predecessors if only for the lack of the masterpiece song that marked, however, Destroyers Of The Faith (Chant Of The Nameless) and To Reap Heavens Apart (Far From Heart). Thanks also to the fact that the interpretation of Plaza is able to enhance any song, the work flows well never falling below the average level to which the Chilean band has pleasantly accustomed us, with its peaks found in All Descending Suns, a typical track that grows hand in hand with the emphasis of the vocals, in the single Lonely Are The Ways Of Stranger and in the final One By One They Died, with its poignant guitar melody, not by chance the most doom songs in the classic sense of the term within a setlist that sees several episodes more oriented to a robust heavy metal (When Doomsday Has Come, As They Reached The Womb). As said, Doom Decimation is a small step backwards in terms of inspiration, but we should not forget that this depends more on the beauty of previous albums than on the actual value of the current one, which is still, however you want to put it, one of the best expressions of classic doom released this year.

2017 – High Roller Records