Doomed - Our Ruin Silhouettes (CD)

Review
Totgehort
8.5/10
26.06.2014

Endlich bekommen Death-Doom-Jünger neues Futter! Die Zwickauer DOOMED haben nach zwei Jahren endlich ein neues Album am Start, das auf den Namen "Our Ruin Silhouette" hört. Dabei haben sich die Sachsen prominente Unterstützung ins Boot geholt.
Gleich beim Opener hört man die Stimme von Pim Blankenstein, der als Sänger



von OFFICIUM TRISTE zu den Mitbegründern der tödlichen Langsamkeit zählt. Aber auch alleine schaffen es die Ostdeutschen verdammt starke Songs zu schreiben, die zwischen schwerer Death-Metal-Lava und doomiger Melancholie schwelgen. In ihrer Qualität reichen sie fast an meine großen Helden aus dem Norden heran und spielen sogar einen ähnlichen Stil wie OPHIS (allerdings findet sich in der Musik der Kieler ein größerer Funeral-Doom-Anteil wieder). DOOMED ist an vielen Stellen (wie zum Beispiel 'A Reccurent Dream') wesentlich verträumter und besitzt einen hohen Melodieanteil. Dieser ist zwar nicht so dominant wie etwa bei NAILED TO OBSCURITY oder INSOMNIUM, aber durchaus vorhanden. 'The Last Meal', bei dem die Kapelle von Ex-IMPENDING-DOOM-Fronter Andreas Kaufmann unterstützt wird, ist wiederum (vor allem bei der Einleitung) sehr hart und prügelt erst mal tüchtig drauf los, bevor man sich wieder den schwermütigen Passagen widmet. Dennoch bleibt es insgesamt einer der härteren Tracks der Platte. Demgegenüber ist 'My Hand In Yours' wesentlich "romantischer" (was man allerdings im Kontext sehen muss), auch wenn es hier nicht an bleischweren Gitarren mangelt.








Generell kann man eigentlich nichts Schlechtes über dieses Album sagen. DOOMED präsentieren sich hier von ihrer besten Seite und machen ihren beiden Vorgängeralben mit diesem Release alle Ehre. "Our Ruin Silhouettes" bleibt dem Stil der Band bis in das letzte Detail treu und wird durch die Gastbeiträge sogar noch weiter aufgewertet. Im Schatten des Death-Metal-Revivals scheinen auch immer mehr düstere Doom-Deather ihre Chance zu wittern und veröffentlichen vermehrt richtig fantastische Alben. Im Moment lohnt es sich traurig zu sein, denn der Soundtrack dazu ist einfach nur schön.
Seit Ende April ist der neue Opus von DOOMED über Solitude Productions auf dem Markt.

Author: Adrian

Review
DoomedToDarknessZine
8.5/10
25.06.2014

Doomed are a 1 man band from Germany that plays a mixture of doom and death metal and this is a review of his 2014 album "Our Ruin Silhouettes" which was released by Solitude Productions.

Dark avant garde sounds and melodic chanting start off the album along with some reverb and a few seconds later the music goes for a more heavy and atmospheric doom metal sound along with some deep death metal growls and powerful sounding bass guitars and after awhile melodic guitar solos and leads become a part of the music.

All of the songs are long and epic tracks and you can also hear some high pitched screams in certain sections of the recording and the melodic chanting of the beginning track makes its return in certain sections of the recording and after awhile the music starts utilizing clean parts mixed with the more heavier ones and the bring in ambient feeling to the music and there are also some guitar riffs that have a small amount of prog traces in them.

On the 4th track the music starts to speed up a bit and you can hear a great amount of old school death metal elements being mixed in the music along with some semi blast beats before returning back to a slow doom metal sound that also use s keyboards and a more atmospheric background and one of the later tracks uses a small amount of spoken word parts and except for maybe one track the music for the most part sticks to a very slow doom/death metal direction while there are also soft parts being utilized on the last song.

Doomed creates a very interesting style of doom/death metal taking this musical genre and building upon its foundations to, create on of the most original and probably one of the best albums this genre had had in awhile, the production sounds very professional while the lyrics cover dark and depressing themes.

In my opinion Doomed are a very great sounding melodic, atmospheric doom/death metal project and if you are a fan of this musical genre, you should check out this album. RECOMMENDED TRACKS INCLUDE "In My Own Abyss" "My Hand In Yours" and "What Remains".

Author: OccultBlackMetal

Review
Doom-metal.com
9/10
30.05.2014

You know it's a Doomed album immediately. That distinctive green/brown cover, overlaid with dark and wickedly sinister paper-cut images, links it directly to predecessors 'In My Own Abyss' and 'The Ancient Path'. The quality of packaging, once again by Solitude Productions, is just a little more lush and generous than before: the enclosed booklet now offering extra pages of art, as well as all lyrics and other information.

That gives a hint as to what to expect from the latest chapter in Pierre Laube's solo project work, 'Our Ruin Silhouettes': both continuity from, and refinement of, the quality set by the two 2012 releases. Those established a solid merger of dispassionately melodic lines and blunt, brutal rhythms, treading an effective and individual line between accessible and extreme Death/Doom, and any listener wanting more of that is not going to be disappointed.

There's more to it than simply being the third chapter of the same book, though. Yes, the trademark elements remain: hefty bass and well-managed drum programming drive the generally mid-tempo paces, layers of hard-edged rhythm guitar and occasional synth ornaments add depth and body beneath sharper and more precise leads, powerful and deep growls dominate the vocals, and the production gives them all a pleasing clarity and forcefulness. But it also sounds as though the longer intervening break has been put to good use, allowing time for a greater maturing of the composition, both at track and album level. There is more variety within the songs, which also incorporate a greater range of interesting intro/outro sections - such as chants and other effects - and they are laid out to give more contrast and variation across the whole. All, perhaps, perfectly demonstrated by the way the album opens with a Latin liturgy rather than a power chord.

Of course, there are power chords to follow, once 'When Hope Disappears' gets into its moderately fast stride: aside from featuring guest vocal contributions by Pim Blankenstein, it has that typically massive, slightly abrupt, sound which lets the listener know they are on something like familiar territory. Something like - for there are also moments like the martial drumbeats of 'In My Own Abyss', the high-speed sections of 'The Last Meal' (also featuring additional vocals, from Andeas Kaufmann), the spoken-word passage in 'My Hand In Yours' and the hoarse whispering in 'Revolt' to add twists and turns to the plot. These serve to subtly yet definitely break up the slightly monolithic deliveries exhibited on the preceding albums, not to alleviate the overall sense of dense, crushing doom, but to refocus the listener on it. As a result, although the core techniques and values remain the same, the additional compelling of attention imbues them with a greater intensity and sense of purpose.

It would be hard to identify any serious criticism here, evolving as it has from what was already an impressively high standard. The tracks, all hovering between the six- and nine-minute mark, unfold without dragging or overstaying their welcome, centring around the expected themes of confronting loss and ruin at both a personal and societal level. None show any weakness, and the high points of 'In My Own Abyss' and 'Revolt' exemplify the progression made by the album. Accessible as the music may be, it most certainly isn't uplifting: the rawness of the debut may be a distant memory, but the immense, bleakly powerful nature of it is definitely not.

To conclude, then, Doomed remains a largely prosaic entity: the music and lyrical content just as much so as the band name. All of those, matter-of-factly, take a blunt presumption of the grimness of existence and give that a clear, unambiguous, unsentimental voice. Even the continuing (and excellent) graphic theme is direct and to the point, leaving little room for metaphorical interpretation. That isn't any kind of failing; it's a statement of intent, and 'Our Ruin Silhouettes' fits in perfectly with that unfolding manifesto. And so, to match it with an equally prosaic summary: this is Doomed. But better.

Author: Mike Liassides

Review
Iye Zine
8.3/10
17.05.2014

Il progetto solista di Pierre Laube arriva al terzo album in due anni e conferma la parabola ascendente che caratterizza l’operato del musicista tedesco fin dall’inizio di questa sua avventura.

Attestatosi ormai stabilmente bel prestigioso roster della Solitude, Pierre non tradisce le coordinate di base che hanno caratterizzato il suo death-doom sia nell’esordio The Ancient Path sia nel successivo My Own Abyss ma, in quest’occasione, il sound si concede in diverse occasioni aperture melodiche capaci di attenuare l’effetto claustrofobico che fino a ieri ne era contemporaneamente trademark e parziale limite.
La chitarra infatti si lascia andare a passaggi capaci di segnare i singoli brani, proprio ciò che veniva meno nei lavori precedenti dove invece veniva privilegiato un impatto di matrice death, senza dubbio efficace ma alla lunga privo del necessario cambio di marcia.
Non che i Doomed siano diventati di punto in bianco dei discepoli dei Saturnus, intendiamoci, il doom della one-man band teutonica è sempre piuttosto corrosivo e scevro di soluzioni di facile presa, ma la rabbiosa aggressività del recente passato lascia maggiormente spazio a una chitarra che trasmette più amarezza che malinconia, in ogni caso.
La scelta di aprire il disco ospitando alla voce uno dei cantanti simbolo del death-doom melodico europeo, ovvero Pim Blankenstein degli Officium Triste, denota anche a livello di intenti un maggiore ammorbidimento del sound, aspetto che a mio avviso permette ai Doomed di compiere un decisivo salto di qualità.
When Hope Disappears è infatti forse il brano migliore scritto da Pierre in questo biennio, non solo grazie al contributo vocale dell’ospite (del resto il musicista tedesco dispone egli stesso di un growl ben più che adeguato) ma, soprattutto, per la presenza di una chitarra capace di disegnare melodie sufficientemente dolenti; lo stesso accade anche in fondo anche in The Last Meal, dove in questo caso l’ospite è il meno noto Andreas Kaufmann, e nella conclusiva What Remains, per un trittico di brani che mostra il lato più melodico dei Doomed.
Il resto di Our Ruin Silhouettes si assesta sui livelli e sulle coordinate dei precedenti lavori, ma è indubbia la percezione di un lavoro di scrittura più definito e in qualche modo più aperto e non è da escludere che, essendo divenuti i Doomed, almeno dal vivo, una band a tutti gli effetti, Pierre ne abbia risentito positivamente anche in fase di composizione.
Ancora una volta, quindi, non si può che accogliere con soddisfazione una nuova uscita del musicista tedesco che, senza fare troppi proclami, prosegue con teutonica regolarità la sua marcia d’avvicinamento ai vertici del death-doom.

Author: Stefano Cavanna

Review
Stormbringer
4/5
02.05.2014

Die Einmann-Doom-Allzweckwaffe Pierre Laube klopfte unlängst wieder an und legte uns sein neues, mittlerweile schon drittes Album vor die Tür. Wieder einmal hat er beinahe alles selbst gemacht, Pim Blankenstein und Andreas Kaufmann gehen ihm bei zwei Songs etwas zur Hand. Ansonsten röchelt der Chef selber. Spielt selber, gestaltet und produziert selber.

Und erneut gibt es nix zu meckern.

Klar, der heraufziehende Frühling, bald in einen hellen Sommer übergehend ist nicht das, was man unter Doom-Wetter versteht. Es ist schwierig, sich düster an ein Jahrhunderte altes Kreuz zu lehnen und zu lamentieren, wenn nebenan im Schwimmbad ein Haufen Volksschulkinder über die nagelneue Riesenrutsche fräsen. Aber das ist dann auch der große Unterschied von DOOMED zu vielen anderen Bands des Genres. Pierre versteht es, die dem Doom bisweilen inhärente Laschheit in melodische, frei schwimmende Songs zu verpacken. Und die funktionieren dann auch auf dem Fahrrad bei der sonntäglichen Ausfahrt.

"The Last Meal" mit Andreas Kaufmann als Barden darf nicht unerwähnt bleiben, wird hier doch im Höchsttempo losgeknüppelt (im letzten Drittel kommt es noch mal ganz dick), seitens des Schlagwerks. Das Riff legt sich allerdings sehr geschmeidig über das hektische Fundament. Der Song ist aber in seinen ersten beiden Minuten aber auf jeden Fall fast ein wenig verwirrend für den Doomkopf. Hier spielt der Chef ein wenig mit dem Hörer. Gelungen.

Sehr griffig auch der mit etwas Dark Wave Elementen versetzte „My Hand In Yours“ das im Laufe der Wiedergabe beinahe rockig wird. Das sind kleine, feine Elemente, die so das Album noch weiter aufwerten. Dann aber wieder das warme, beruhigende Element der Langsamkeit. Es ist erneut ein Gedicht, wie langsam man beschwingte Melodien spielen kann. Wie sehr man einerseits extrem harte, extrem langsame Riffs freisetzt und andererseits jedem Song ein eigenes Gerüst errichtet mit dem er sich völlig eigen selbst errichtet ist wohl eine Fertigkeit, die vielen abgeht.

Das Album wird über das russische Solitude-Label veröffentlicht. Zu erstehen wieder über die DOOMED-Seite. Und man sollte sich das Album auch wirklich als physische Kopie besorgen. Erneut ist das Design wieder interessant hochwertig und auch textlich hat man wieder etwas zu sagen. Man merkt die massive Sorgfalt, die in die Erweckung dieses Stückes Musik gegangen ist. Ein rundum gelungenes Stück Doom.

Author: Christian Wiederwald