I enjoy prototypical brooding doom band. When some one tells you about atmospheric funeral doom metal at first a delineation will click automatically in your imaginary such as excruciatingly slowly,pulchritudinous heavy, eschew crushing, bleakest, most hauntingly beautiful, graceful, downtuned, slow motion soundscapes of drifting, floating, dreamlike music, moving in gentle transitions to vaguely shifting perspectives of mood. Feel yourself decay, gaze helplessly, thoughtlessly as the preternaturally odious head over the horizon, blotting out the last scarlet gasps of a moribund sunset, looming over the eerily tranquil and temperate ocean like an antediluvian menhir - massive, silent, mysterious and unspeakable journey, alone in a darkened room, lighting a few candles, unsealed some good wine and settling in for an uninterrupted hour of beauteous funeral doom sound driven by feelings and thus creates immense power and resonate overpowering as it is a purely exquisite voyage of yielding passion. That's probably just me and my definition of depression. While some excellent ,unique band attempting to sell their flavor of the month band to potential listeners, there are some that simply exist outside of pre-existing molds. Some challengers exist, such as
Slow, a phenomenal addition to the Funeral doom metal roster. It's difficult to imagine, but "
V - Oceans" surpassed than their previous work and moved Slow to the whole new level with their something absolutely new and unimaginably great music level. The geographical shift in the propagation of funeral doom metal has changed drastically over the past three decades. Slow unveiled their fifth full length album entitled “
V - Oceans” in the middle of previous month with 55:13 min running time along with morose, forlorn but heavy as fuck doom with more sadness and pathos than you can stand and you will definitely feel oppressed. Mixing funeral doom metal with atmospheric,gloomy vibe was their forte. New album is filled with more unearthly, astounding,critical acclaimed,heavy, claustrophobic misery ,enigmatic melodies.This new album is consist with 5 tracks. Basically Slow was formed in 2007. For those not familiar with this musical entity, Slow is the brainchild and solo project of funeral doom master
Deha from
Clouds, Imber Luminis, Maladie, Merda Mundi etc. Easily Slow became one of my favorite atmospheric funeral doom metal band with their mystique and epic musical style . now I’m straight diving to the point about this new album .
This new studio efforts whole compositions showcased such power and emotion conveyed throughout the duration. This album embrace of the most beautiful of deaths. Monstrous lead voice rumbles deep in passing observations and recollections of forgotten memories, accompanied by a choir of ghostly angels soothing the sorrow of fading light that signals the end of experience in a world incapable of sustaining its illusionary promise of an ideal state of beauty and truth and a painful realization from which this music sleepily drifts away. This is truly a beautiful, wondrous piece of music , very organic and is constantly in motion along with your feelings, emotion. When I was spinning their latest studio effort for the first time I was overwhelmed, invaded my ears and this album sounds so authentic,mature and truly epic. This is triumphant sophisticated,spine-chilling atmospheric funeral doom metal.
Deha himself banishes all our doubts regarding the genre describing the music of "
V - Oceans" and putting particular emphasis on the first word and rekindle my endless love for atmospheric funeral doom metal. I cherish his unsurpassed quality,ability and skill along with tremendous effort portrayed in this album in radiant way with excellent diligence and nailed it. After a multiple listen their debut studio effort infused me with their unabating, powerful, overarching, chromatic, multi-layered ,ultra-dense,monolithic, heart wrenching, sorrowful funeral doom metal just blew me away . Their musical style have a hypnotic effect and especially more atmospheric kind of funeral doom metal but at the same time the soundscape bring on sensations of crushing depression and evoke feelings of desperation making for a very dynamic performance.
This whole album reflects the grand diversity of this album. A natural synthesis of mournful sounds and disparate styles all combined in one bold, enlightened display of unbound creativity. Easily this whole album hooked me up with it’s vocals filthy, crushing voice and their doom laden, deep,unrelenting, melancholic, sorrowful, distant musical style with marvelous, exquisite piano works and builds layers of melancholy through high reverb along with slow tempo. Their musical style avoid themselves falling into the usual funeral boredom. "V - Oceans" fueled by an immediately convincing, weeping riff and an equally gripping bass line also it flows effortlessly and though the music is pretty dirgey. They manage to shift tempos just at the right moments to keep things rolling along like a grim parade. The kind of music that swells the heart even as it rips with a sorrow and loneliness and music is so emotional you can almost see the individual notes break down and cry. I highly appreciate and embrace this album.
This album is filled with a slew of delicate, whopping, intense, slow but powerful , heavy riffs work .In each track breathtaking, rumbling, filthy, soaring riffs,bass lineups matched in well manner with mournful sounds are rightly used as an additional uncanny harmonic layer laced with dazzling, epic, exquisite piano laden melodies. The album carries with it an aura that is austere, melancholic, bereft of sunlight but one that above all excels at comprehensively nailing the listener into place and fixing his mind on the subject matter. A grand manifestation of melancholy. This album indulge strong songwriting and brilliant musicianship. Vocals howling scream, hoarse , inhuman , deep rasps , deep lung-burning roars, immense,large voice emerged on this album in a well manner and intertwined perfectly with their utterly spellbinding, obtuse, melodic, doomy, fully blistering, grandiose, sorrowful, distant musical style in a well manner with a lots of atmospheric accompaniment, piano leads and embedded perfectly. Overall you will get sinister, gloomy,desolate,mysterious ambient from this whole album. Some excellent, emotional stuff right here.
Each song have an energy ,fluency and magical quality. Stand out tracks are all of them . I personally cherish Aurore, Tenebres, Deluge, Neant, Mort tracks. Whoa!! did I mention all 5 tracks ?? Yes I'm pretty damn sure about it and all of them are splendid. Album artwork is precise, indelible . The production gives the music a powerful clarity, the atmosphere,drum propulsion and vibrant bass performance producing a non-stop surge of adrenaline. This new album displays their virtuosic performance and versatility with tremendous ability, skill and this one really makes sense and carries real emotions. Deha was always a great riff writer but these are some of his best yet. Always melancholy and somber, they flit between beautiful and crushing and maintain that delicate equipoise across the album’s length. Overall "V - Oceans" is equally wrist slitting with some truly unhappy lead riffs that smother whatever hope you may have squirreled away deep in the crevices of your dark heart. This album is is Spectacular,engrossing ,significant,rich and another terrific atmospheric piece that oozes despair, sadness and solitariness. The production is absolutely impeccable,capable of handling both the massive atmospheric and gargantuan heft. Slow manages to catch that grim atmosphere of Katharsis and the likes of that. After all, every event in our life that has to do with death has a profound effect on us, making us analyze and philosophize about our existence we are, unmistakably, both frightful of and intrigued by it. "V - Oceans" sets your mind alight, rather than your senses. This album sounds so authentic and a truly remarkable sonic journey from beginning to end . Indeed this album is such an true gem. This is highly recommend to add it in your collection. If you are looking for something different, epic this pure unadulterated black metal album is perfect. It makes me dream bigger, think harder, envision broader.
My Rating – 5/5 Review done by – Souvik Basu . Published on 13.08.2017
