Camel Of Doom - Terrestrial (CD)

Review
Metalaltar
7.8/10
18.03.2016

As I’ve said in the past, stoner doom can be a tricky beast. UK outfit Camel of Doom is a beast of a different sort, however. Bucking the trends of their counterparts, Terrestrial is an unsettling ungulate of trippy spaced-out doom metal.

The opening riffs of Cycles (The Anguish of Anger) kick off with some Conan-esque heavy riffing and a tortured yell from Kris Clayton. The song makes an abrupt slowdown and dips into the subdued spacy rhythm that pops up throughout the rest of the album before returning to the crushing beats a few minutes later.

After a brief instrumental interlude, the third track, Pyroclastic Flow follows the same basic formula as Cycles. Towards the end of the song, however, it goes into a slow groove typically absent from atmospheric doom.

Instrumentally, the standout performer here is Simon Whittle’s bass. It’s thick with just the right amount of reverb, which evokes feelings of being trapped in a metal space station and every clank sounding louder than it should be. It’s a major contributor to the uneasiness felt when listening to Terrestrial.

Camel of Doom do succumb to some of the meandering drone trappings at various points, however. Euphoric Slumber gets a bit repetitive at the end, and probably could have been shaved down a few minutes. While the sub-two-minute interludes between songs give the listener a brief rest before the next tune, they do feel superfluous in the grand scheme.

As with all music of this type, your enjoyment of Terrestrial is going to depend largely on your appreciation for stoner doom in general. For me, I found Camel of Doom quite enjoyable and just different enough to stick out from the herd of other atmospheric doom releases.

Author: C. Hagen Radick

Review
MetalBlast
4.5/5

With its cover art of celestial patterns, track titles hinting at proggy expansiveness (like “A Circle Has No End” and “Extending Life, Expanding Consciousness”), and half of the tracks running past the ten-minute mark, the new album from Camel of Doom (they couldn’t have gone with, I dunno, Doomedary?) gives impressions of size and grandeur from the moment it’s picked up and examined.

Kicking off with “Cycles (The Anguish of Anger)”, the band thunders quickly into heavy storminess, thick waves of bass melding with thumping drumming and trenchant growls while rhythms and tempos rise and fall. In terms of style, there’s a doom base with some sludgy aggression and tonal edge, the aforementioned proggy wanderlust, and a touch of post-metal in the experimental nature and drum arrangements (plus the frequently cosmic/existential nature of the lyrics).

To the band’s credit, they achieve an ‘epic’ feel without the negative baggage that the term has accrued over the years. The songs are big, sprawling, and highly ambitious, but there’s rarely a sense that they’re just filler. Instead, it feels as if the songs naturally grew to their final sizes as a result of the work put into practicing and playing them, with the band being reluctant to cut them down too far and lose some of the towering power they achieve. On another impressive note, the songs flow quite well from one into the next in terms of tone, harmony, and energy, so once you get started on the album, it’s hard to jump out partway through the experience.

Though things mostly splash around in the low-end of the sonic range, the production does a nice job of keeping the various elements distinct in the execution without making things too sterile or disengaged from one another. Grumbling rolls from the bass play against strained feedback from the guitar, mixed so that you can focus on either or both, depending on your preference.

Overall, it’s a very strong album which does a great job of realizing its goals. While I wouldn’t plaster it as a full recommendation across the metal spectrum (those who prefer things at regular high speeds would be liable to get antsy) I would give it an emphatic push to those metal fans on the heavier end.

Author: Gabriel

Review
Grinder Magazine
09.03.2016

No había tenido la suerte de cruzarme con esta agrupación inglesa de Doom. Para mi sorpresa, este es su cuarto disco en estudio, y como ya pueden imaginar, si sumamos que están pataleando desde el 2000, ya han logrado acaparar una gran cantidad de fans, llegando finalmente a los oídos de Solitude Productions, un dedicado sello que se esmera por editar prolijas producciones del más delicado y siniestro Doom Metal.
Originarios de West Yorkshire, este trío fundado por Simon Whittle en bajo, Bed Nield en batería y Kris Clayton en guitarra, voz y teclados, acaba de lanzar su nuevo esfuerzo en estudio.

Titulado Terrestrial, y con ocho cortes que se extienden en más de una hora de intensos sonidos, este manifiesto se asoma como uno de los mejores discos en su género programados para el 2016. Acá escucharán desde un intenso y arrastrado Doom, con guitarras monstruosas hasta arranques psicodélicos que embrujan tus oídos y mente capturando toda tu atención. En Psyroclastic Flow nos catapultan con atmósferas envolventes y fúnebres. Son doce minutos de agonía, como la mayoría de sus composiciones que superan la media de cualquier canción.

Lo interesante de este registro, es que logra pasearse por diversas texturas, generando un ambiente de oscuridad y secretismo, capturando además varias tonalidades sonoras que incluso se embriagan con el Dark Ambient.

Puede ser un buen descubrimiento para quienes están deseosos de escuchar la densidad del Doom en sus pesadillas.

Author: Andrés Padilla

Review
Franconia Metallum

Auf “Terrestrial” begeistern CAMEL OF DOOM mit ihren Kompositionen, die durchflutet von gewaltiger Schwermut und dunkler Melancholie sind. Schon nach den ersten Klängen weiß man, wohin die Reise geht… Sehnsucht, Dunkelheit, Verzweiflung, aber auch eine kleine Lichtportion schimmern durch die düsteren Klänge. Insgesamt acht Tracks sind auf “Terrestrial” verewigt, wobei das vier Minuten Outro (“Extending Life, Expanding Conciousness”) und die Zwischenspiele (“A Circle Has No End” und “Nine Eterneties”) mitgerechnet werden. Schwere Riffs, druckvolles Schlagzeug malen einen Soundteppich der für die Intensität des Werkes steht.

Review
All about the Rock
9/10

Camel of Doom have been around a while, they were formed in 2000 in northern England, so as a fellow northerner I feel both embarrassed and upset that this is the first time I’ve clapped ears on their stuff. If you’re a doom/stoner/experimental metal fan, you seriously need to listen up. Terrestrial is an awakening, so I’ll just have to get straight into this.

The opening track Cycles (The Anguish of Anger) is an immediate kick in the teeth. It’s beautifully heavy, brutally symphonic and gives us an initiation to Kris Clayton’s vocal styles. For me, his sound is not entirely unlike the work of Maurizio Iacono (of Ex Deo and Kataklysm persuasion), and this is no bad thing. His crushing and passionate yell works gorgeously alongside the bass line, and honestly the whole thing is pretty damned special.

There’s so much layering, so many things to tune into here, but it’s all amazingly balanced. The first track is a long one, but I think it has to be. It’s a way of being able to show off that golden combo of unmitigated riffage and majestic synth. There’s no chance of you falling off the cliff with this stuff though, so don’t be thinking you can sit back and read to this shit. Your attention WILL be suspended, and held aloft. Don’t get comfy.

Moving down the tracklist, Pyroclastic Flow feels exactly like it’s title. Like molten rock, to the face. It’s got a strong tempo that dips and peaks. When we get our ‘Doomiest’ moments, it’s pretty magnificent. The vocals become lower, slower, grittier. It’s just all very well fucking done. If you don’t ‘get’ Doom metal. Listen to Terrestrial. I think you soon will.

You know when you think about space? That low rumbling hum that you hear in the back of your head when you think about how small we are as an existence? Camel of Doom have somehow managed to create that hum and make it part of the track named Nine Eternities. It’s only just over a minute long, but I think it serves to put this whole album into context. The theme, the ideas. You’ll get me when you hear it.

The longest track on the album is just under 15 minutes long. So it’s kind of the equivalent of a Lord of the Rings movie. You know it’s going to take some investment, but it’s so, so worth it in the end. Sleeper Must Awaken brings a fresh vocal and a new pace. It’s very ‘matter of fact’ to begin, a little jaunty, with some long, whining guitar and more lyrics than the other tracks combined I think. It’s layered with some great synth effects too and actually has an air of excitement about it. Like “Oh shit, where are we going with this song?” … and where do we go? I don’t want to spoil it for you, but it’s heavy. No, it’s massive. And moving. That’s the most important thing I need to point out. This track, and indeed the whole Terrestrial album is beautifully moving.

Author: Stephanie Robinson