Doomsday is really coming. Unfortunatelly, not as the last days of our civilization in this sad and lonely and pathetic little planet, but the day of Doom Metal bands. Just a few days ago we reviewed a great Doom Metal band and now we have another one. Doom Metal bands are not so numerous here, but they are really intense, if you know what I mean. Intense is the right term for what I’m istening here with Ischemic and their full-length album “Condemned to the Breaking Wheel,” whose Death/Doom Metal mix is at the best.
“Condemned to the Breaking Wheel” is an album that sucessfully gets to join melancholy and fury altogether. The melancholy comes from Doom Metal and the fury comes from Death Metal. Opening and tittle track “Condemned to the Breaking Wheel” delivers this very well. At first a fierce metal strike, then the melancholy and the sadness. The double bass drumming gives a high speed intent to the song which, in fact, happens from time to time because the track is only nine minutes long. As a pro, Ischemic do not follow the Doom Metal ideal of repeating too much the same musical idea. For a Doom Metal song “Condemned to the Breaking Wheel” is pretty varied. To some extent, “Condemned to the Breaking Wheel” is a Death Metal song with the cadence and speed of Doom Metal. What counts the most is the atmosphere the band delivers here in the album. Things slow down even more with “Tomb Fog,” the track that marks the transition from Death/Doom Metal to a melancholic Doom Metal. The spirit of “Tomb Fog” is full of sadness, anguish and grief given by the guitars using the Black Metal technique of strumming and repeating the notes. The doomiest track of the album, if I may. As a matter of fact, it’s a fun fact of the album that track by track their length goes diminishing. “Rust and Bones” follows the same musical idea being a real following track. To some extent, it could be a part of “Tomb Fog.” And the grand finale is “Abandon” with its leap in instrumental quality. The drumming here gets even more technical with some blast beats followed by acid guitars with precise interventions. I keep wondering the effect of “Abandon” alive with a crowd.
We have here an album that sucessfully mix Death Metal with Doom Metal even though the Doom Metal facete wins all over the album. The impression I got is that Ischemic followed Death Metal instrumentals slowed them down to fit into a Doom Metal intent. Well, from where I’m standing, it worked just fine.
Ischemic “Condemned to the Breaking Wheel” will be released on April 05th.
Track Listing:
- Condemned to the Breaking Wheel
- Tomb Fog
- Rust and Bones
- Abandon
Watch “Condemned to the Breaking Wheel” official lyric video here:
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