Written by Zax
- Witnesses
- Doom II
- Doom Metal
- May 30th, 2020
- Independent
- 7.6/10
Traditional doom metal isn’t really my thing, but that’s more so do to ignorance than anything, I haven’t heard a lot of it, and what I have heard, I wasn’t a big fan of, but this album here is definitely an exception!
Witnesses are a band from the United States, and this is actually their 5th full length despite only forming in 2016. This is also a concept album, and I love me a good concept record. The story is sad, entertaining, and unfortunately, kinda relevant. It’s about a plague born at sea that ravages a poor village and its people. It’s worth noting that the artwork is stunning too.
The morose atmosphere of the album is really what drew me to it, the melodic atmospheric parts of this record are beautiful strokes of melancholy, very smooth vocals full of sorrow and instrumentals that evoke emotion in the listener.
The heavier parts of the record are equally atmospheric, but they come with slow, cascading, and crushing riffs. These riffs really carry the album. Occasionally they pick up some blast beats and get a lot more intense which is a nice change of pace that hinders the album from moving into monotonous territory.
Witnesses: Spotify / Bandcamp / Facebook / Instagram
All of the vocals on the record are sung, which typically would be a red flag for me as I often find clean vocals in doom to be a bit over the top, but I think this guy pulls it off well. His smooth yet impassioned crooning sells all of the melancholy and anguish quite well.
Uncertainty, sorrow, and melancholy characterize this record, and if that isn’t representative of 2020 as a whole, I don’t know what does. Oh yeah, its got fat ass riffs too, don’t forget the fat ass riffs. Everybody loves those!
7.6
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