Doom is changing. I hear everywhere that it’s the new, burgeoning genre, a statement that makes me chuckle, because the statement isn’t news. Doom has been in full force for the last thirty years (yes, that’s three decades folks!), starting with the colossal output of Black Sabbath and being continued today by the likes of, to name a few, The Gates of Slumber, High on Fire, and Witchcraft (bands that are all worlds apart from each other in terms of genre but reek of DOOM, just the same). What these people who say doom is making a resurgence don’t understand is that the genre is simply becoming more popular. More people are listening to doom, and consequently, these same people are beginning to actually listen to it now and feel that the genre is “breaking out” all of a sudden. So, one could say that it’s changing, evolving, getting better, getting worse, dissolving, or exploding , but one could not say that it’s blooming, as in having come from no where and then recently coming into existence (the definition of burgeoning), because it has been in existence as long as metal itself has.
Okay, done with the rant, but the reason I include it is because many of these burgeoning-ites claim that Zoroaster’s “Voice Of Saturn” does much to propel the burgeoning. Really though, “Voice of Saturn” builds on the last three decades of doom’s progression to deliver an album that pushes the genre towards a more actualized state than ever before. Whether the LP is burgeoning or revolutionizing is immaterial at the end of the day, because it rocks.
“Spirit Molecule” is a plodding, yet explosively heavy ditty, lasting for over six minutes, yet carrying a distinct metal edge that few metal bands can sustain. My favourite on the album though is “White Dwarf,” a just-over-five-minute barn burner featuring Mastodon’s Brent Hinds. Brent Anderson begins the song be bellowing “here comes the sunrise, consuming all…”, allowing the song to slowly build through two verse/chorus sections until the band unleashes a subtle yet psychedelic solo that is but an hors d’oeuvres locking the listener into the almost thrashy onslaught that erupts, which morphs back into a riff-heavy squealer.
The doom is cutting edge, but if that doesn’t grab you, at least check out the LP for the artwork alone.
