DOOM:VS - Earthless
This is a one man depressive doom death release, from Solitude productions. Typical for the label and the genre, DOOM:VS is Johan Ericson’s project (Draconian, Shadowgarden) that has been going for ten years or so now. Musically, there is definitely atmosphere, a level of melancholy too. Once you add the depressive/aggressive vocal to the mix I can’t help wonder what this would sound like with more emphasis on cleaner vocal tones, this would perhaps balance or rather highlight the emotion further through spectacular moments that reside in tracks like ‘White Coffins’.
‘A Quietly Forming Collapse’ develops further the epic song structures that started the release, not quite into the atmospheric territory of say While Heaven Wept which is more doom alone, but with the same idea of emotive playing with particular attention to detail in everything that is recorded. Keyboards and quieter pieces are juggled hand in hand with aggressive distorted guitar sections, and because this rather long track (‘A Quietly Forming Collapse’) features as more of an instrumental, this works out far more agreeable for the listener in my opinion.
Once you are buried by tracks such as ‘Oceans of Despair’ you get the clean and dirty vocal mix that I was craving for at the start of ‘Earthless’. This ensures that you connect more with the track, the listener now feels involved and this really addresses any misgivings that I may have had earlier in the release. By becoming more involved, by varying and playing with listeners senses DOOM:VS ‘Earthless’ works on many different levels. It’s a complex recording with complete meticulous musical detail that destroys your soul and immerses you into the mind and vision of its creator Ericson.
‘A Quietly Forming Collapse’ develops further the epic song structures that started the release, not quite into the atmospheric territory of say While Heaven Wept which is more doom alone, but with the same idea of emotive playing with particular attention to detail in everything that is recorded. Keyboards and quieter pieces are juggled hand in hand with aggressive distorted guitar sections, and because this rather long track (‘A Quietly Forming Collapse’) features as more of an instrumental, this works out far more agreeable for the listener in my opinion.
Once you are buried by tracks such as ‘Oceans of Despair’ you get the clean and dirty vocal mix that I was craving for at the start of ‘Earthless’. This ensures that you connect more with the track, the listener now feels involved and this really addresses any misgivings that I may have had earlier in the release. By becoming more involved, by varying and playing with listeners senses DOOM:VS ‘Earthless’ works on many different levels. It’s a complex recording with complete meticulous musical detail that destroys your soul and immerses you into the mind and vision of its creator Ericson.
- Earthless
- A Quietly Forming Collapse
- White Coffins
- The Dead Swan Of The Woods
- Oceans Of Despair
- The Slow Ascent
