Futility - Futility
Futility are another real good band hailing from Canberra, Australia and it adds more proof to the fact that Australia is becoming one of the leading countries for Metal, not only Doom but all genres of Heavy Rock and Metal. Futility are a blend of Gothic Doom, Funeral Doom and Death Metal and while I think the band is capable of even better, this is a pretty solid effort. Anybody who knows anything about Australia knows Canberra is a pretty boring city most of the time so making Doom Metal music must seem like the obvious music genre to play, no offense to anyone who happens to live there. The six tracks on the album all have solid riffing, a solid bass sound, big drums and deathly vocals that are growled in a Death Metal style. The band is not doing anything different or ground-breaking but they leave their own mark on the Gothic Doom genre which has the tendency to all sound the same for the most part. All the songs has powerful arrangements that flow and progress smoothly while remaining crushing and there is some intricate sections which give the songs a wide range of emotions. The intro to "My Sickness" gets the headbanging grooves going in fine style and its not too long when the band shifts into pure darkness mode with their obvious "Katatonia" influence shining through. They even do a cover of that bands "Murder" and while I am not much of a fan of "Katatonia", they do a great version here. They are a band where comparisons become obvious pretty quickly, "Novembers Doom", "My Dying Bride" and "Swallow The Sun" are just some names that come to mind but "Futility" do have enough of their own sound to make them unique enough to warrant repeated spins. Highlights are "Saline Oasis" and "Nothing" which sees the band reaching their stride with some great writing and musicianship, its these songs that best show the emotional style of Doom that they are trying to put across. The production of the album is pretty good for a independent release and while the songs are a little generic in places ( the vocals being the main offender here ), it is one of the better Gothic Doom releases I have heard in the past year.
1. Failed
2. Saline Oasis
3. My Sickness
4. Fallen
5. Nothing
6. Murder
