Oak - Oak (2009)

Disgusting, dissonant, raw sludge-drone-death from Baltimore. True sounds of despair and malevolence from the B-more underground. Oak started out with two members of my old band Wake Up On Fire --  drummer Kevin (R.I.P) and vocalist Joe -- but I believe Kevin was only in the band for a few months and is not featured on this album.

Track listing:

1. Saline

2. Inside the Circle

3. Owl Eyes

4. Gates Are Open

Dead bodies fill the shore

Piled up for the taking

One face after another

Friends of:

Inure - Inure (Rough Mixes) (2003)

Moonshine - Moonshine (2005)

Ophthalamia - A Journey in Darkness (1994)

Related:

Abruptum - Obscuritatem Advoco Amplectère Me (1993)

Abruptum - Vi Sonus Veris Nigrae Malitiaes (1997)

Swedish melodic blackened doom featuring the guitar stylings of the late, great It. Riffs right out of the Sabbath/Candlemass playbook, raspy black metal vocals, and some goth-y keyboards here and there for atmosphere. Get it, you fools!

Track listing:

1. A Cry from the Halls of Blood / Empire of Lost Dreams

2. Enter the Darkest Thoughts of the Chosen / Agony's Silent Paradise

3. Journey in Darkness / Entering the Forest

4. Shores of Kaa-Tu-Nu / The Eternal Walk, Part II

5. A Lonely Soul / Hymn to a Dream

6. Little Child of Light / Degradation of Holyness

7. Castle of No Repair / Lies from a Blackened Heart

8. This Is the Pain Called Sorrow / To the Memory of Me

9. I Summon Thee, Oh Father / Death Embrace Me

My blackened teeth chew at the air we breathe

If you like this, check out:

Shadowseeds - Dream of Lilith (1995)

Necromass - Abyss Calls Life (1996)

Wormwood - Starvation (2006)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:

Wormwood - Requiescat (2000)

Someone just requested that I re-up the link for Requiescat, and it made me want to revisit Wormwood's swan-song: Starvation. Here, they went more atmospheric, leaning into an epic, gothic horror-fueled sound that harkens both to Souls at Zero-era Neurosis and early death/doom bands like Paradise Lost and Anathema, while keeping that crusty base. The last time my old band Wake Up On Fire played with them, we had partied afterwards, and I woke up surrounded by my passed-out bandmates in their percussionist/vocalist's living room, where he had set up a digital scrolling marquee making fun of our guitarist for puking. RIP this band.

Track listing:

1. Passages of Lesser Light

2. Release from Expectation

3. Finite

4. As You Bind, So Are You Bound

5. The Towering Outdoors

6. Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me

7. No True Altruism

8. Starvation

9. Gluttony

A bridge between sun and form

More from Seattle:

Teen Cthulhu - Ride the Blade (2003)

Wilt - Wilt (2017)

Morgion - Cloaked by Ages, Crowned in Earth (2004)

At the beginning of the pandemic, I set aside maybe 300 records to sell, figuring it'd be a soothing house project that could end up netting me a few thousand dollars. They've been sitting in my office for almost two years now, and tomorrow I'm finally gonna take a crate down to the ol' punk/metal record store and see what's what. So I've been sorting out some of the more desirable but not particularly valuable ones -- those I'll probably sell on Discogs -- and came across this LP.

Now, I hadn't listened to this album on any format for maybe a decade, and that alone was why it got set aside, but something compelled me to give it one last spin while I folded some laundry, and fuck that, this one stays. Epic, melodic death/doom with a slightly crusty, earthy feel, a spacious, clean-guitar-heavy atmosphere, and beautiful, meditative vocals, all put together as one continuous piece. Goddamn, what other phenomenal LPs am I about to sell?

Track listing:

1. Cloaked by Ages

2. A Slow Succumbing

3. Ebb Tide

4. Trillium Rune

5. The Mourner's Oak

6. Cairn

7. She the Master Covets

8. Crowned in Earth

They are the sentient circle

The meeting point to the end

If you like this, try:

Abandon - The Dead End (2009)

Akelei - De Zwaarte van het Doorstane (2010)

Wooden Stake - Dungeon Prayers & Tombyard Serenades (2011)

US doom/death. A seamless fusion of cavernous sludge, sluggish death metal, and melodic occult doom, with an ever-so slightly blackened finish. The master's kinda quiet or the production's kinda distant or something, so turn it up.

Track listing:

1. Cadaverum Caecorum Liber

2. Salem, 1692

3. Tortured into Eternal Repose

4. Die Rache der Hexen

5. Six Feet of Earth... and All It Contains

6. Cemetery Closes at Sundown

7. Skullcoven

8. Anguished Atonement

9. Bleeding Coffin

Blood on Satan's claw brings Him back

You'd probably also enjoy:

Horrors of the Black Museum - Gold from the Sea (2008)

Brulvahnatu - Menstrual Extraction Ceremony (2011)

Anatomia - Dissected Humanity (2006)

Related:
Transgressor - Ether for Scapegoat (1992)

Autopsy-style Japanese death/doom. Disgusted and disgusting, complete with sludgy breakdown riffs that would sound right at home on a Grief song.

Track listing:
1. Carnal Mutilation
2. Tortured Bleeding End
3. Drowned in Sewage
4. Funeral Feast
5. Suicides
6. Deceased
7. Morgue of Cannibalism
8. Only Consumed by Dead
9. Stillborn [Autopsy cover]

Stomach opened
Organs discharged
Shredded meat
Left decayed

Similar listening:

Infester -
To the Depths, in Degradation (1994)

The Ravenous -
Assembled in Blasphemy (2001)
+ Three on a Meathook (2003)

Phlebotomized - Devoted to God (1992)

Dutch death/doom. Eerie, atmospheric keyboards, thick guitars, beastly gutturals, songs that rarely stay on the same part for more than 20 seconds or so, and best-case-scenario production for a 90s death metal demo.

Track listing:
1. In Search of Tranquility
2. Subtle Disbalanced Liquidity
3. Desecration of Alleged Christian History
4. Fate of a Devotee
5. Devoted to God
6. Tragic Entanglement
7. Ataraxia

Slowly captivated by the suffocating mass

You should also listen to:

Cryptic Tales -
Anathema (1992)

Fleshcrawl -
Descend into the Absurd (1992)

Desire - Infinity... A Timeless Journey Through an Emotional Dream (1996)

Stunning Portuguese atmospheric death/doom. Crushing but melodic, almost absurdly grandiose dirges elevated by a backdrop of drifting, ethereal keyboards.

Track listing:
1. Prologue
2. (Leaving) This Land of the Eternal Desires
3. A Ride in a Dream Crow
4. The Purest Dreamer
5. In Delight with the Mermaid
6. Forever Dreaming... (Shadow Dancer)
7. Epilogue

At last, I can feel it
The burning sky over me

If you like this, you should listen to:

Funeral -
Tragedies (1995)

Void of Silence -
Toward the Dusk (2001)

Sculpture - Like a Dead Flower (1997)

An obscure EP of Portuguese doom/death. Between the wandering harmonized guitar leads and the vocals switching back-and-forth between a weepy moan and a death growl, Like a Dead Flower sounds pretty much exactly like Serenades-era Anathema.

Track listing:
1. Arid Life
2. At the Gates of Shadows World
3. Autumn Serenades
4. The Remains of the Day
5. Our Crying Earth

I want to belong to the nighttime

You should also hear:

Paradigma -
Mare Veris (1995)

Saturnus -
Paradise Belongs to You (1996)

Ablaze in Hatred - Deceptive Awareness (2006)

Atmospheric, melodic Finnish doom/death. Clean and distorted guitars mix with ethereal keyboards to form a beautifully crushing wall of sound, out from which creep beastly growls and mournful, majestic leads. Ablaze in Hatred certainly didn't invent this sound -- bands like Swallow the Sun and Shape of Despair are clear predecessors -- but they're a worthy addition to the pantheon.

Track listing:
1. Lost (The Overture)
2. When the Blackened Candles Shine
3. Howls Unknown
4. Constant Stillness
5. Ongoing Fall
6. To Breathe and to Suffocate
7. Closure of Life

How I love to drown in this serene dream
The dream of those who deserve to die

More like this:

Remembrance -
Fall, Obsidian Night (2010)

The Fall of Every Season -
Amends (2013)

Funeral - From These Wounds (2006)

Related:
Funeral - Tragedies (1995)
Fallen - A Tragedy's Bitter End (2004)

The other Funeral masterpiece. Sorrowful baritone vocals over crushing riffs, majestic keyboards, and generally melodic but utterly desolated sounds that are equally informed by funeral doom and gothic death. From These Wounds was written in the aftermath of the suicide of founding guitarist/vocalist Einar Andre Fredriksen (who some of you might recognize from his appearance on this album cover.) Then, heartbreakingly, one of their guitarists, Christian Loos, committed suicide just before the album's release. Needless to say, the specter of loss and mortality hangs over this record's every moment, and you can definitely hear it.

Track listing:
1. This Barren Skin
2. From These Wounds
3. The Architecture of Loss
4. Red Moon
5. Vagrant Moon
6. Pendulum
7. Saturn

Here I lie
Waiting to die
No cigarettes
No drinks after eight
Here I lie
Medication cut down
To preserve my breath
To postpone my death

Also listen to:

Diabolique -
Wedding the Grotesque (1997)

Omit -
Repose (2011)

Brulvahnatu - Menstrual Extraction Ceremony (2011)

Fucking phenomenal Canadian black/death/doom. I understand your trepidation: you're looking at that album cover, and wondering what kind of weird, amateurish perversion I'm trying to get you to download. But since I'm lazy and high and I hate music writing, you're just gonna have to trust me on this one. Free/name your price via bandcamp.

Track listing:
1. The Book of Forgotten Places
2. Hunting Season (At an End)
3. Fluids
4. The Gland
5. Menstrual Extraction Ceremony

Sick creature nightmare

You should also listen to:

Rites of Thy Degringolade -
The Caryatid (2000)

Wormlust -
The Wormlust Collective (2012)

Majestic Downfall - Temple of Guilt (2009)

Epic US death/doom. Lots of melodic, mid-paced stuff à la Rapture/early Katatonia, but it's not overly polished, as a lot of disciples of those bands tend to be.

Track listing:
1. Temple of Guilt
2. Unexpected
3. Swallow: Pride
4. Failure
5. Bleeding Sun

Light came in
And all turned black

If you like this, you should hear:

Anathema -
The Silent Enigma (1995)

Cryptal Darkness -
They Whispered You Had Risen (1999)

Horrified - In the Garden of the Unearthly Delights (1993)

Greek atmospheric death metal. You'd be forgiven for expecting a band called Horrified with a song titled "Baptized in Venereal Blood" to play grind-y, gore-soaked death metal, but they are actually very much in line with the moderately raw, epic sound for which the Hellenic extreme metal scene is most famous, complete with droning keyboards and quasi-operatic, lady-of-the-lake-sounding guest vocals.

Track listing:
1. The Awakening
2. Elisaph
3. Early Dawn Enraged
4. Crawling Silence
5. Down at the Valley of the Great Encounter
6. Dying Forest
7. Baptized in Venereal Blood
8. Poetry of War
9. Unbridled God
10. Dancing Next to Dying Souls

Lying sun
Forgotten faith

You'd also like:

Cryptic Tales -
Anathema (1992)

Mindrot -
Dawning (1995)

Asunder / Like Flies on Flesh - Asunder / Like Flies on Flesh [Split] (2000)

A killer split LP featuring the first recorded output from the mighty Asunder, as well as the only recorded material by Like Flies on Flesh. Though they'd go on to create some of the most majestic funeral doom in existence -- seriously, if you haven't heard A Clarion Call, get on it -- the songs on this split are pure, crusty death/doom of the highest order. The Like Flies on Flesh songs are a malleable kind of epic crust-metal, touching on black, death, doom, thrash, and more. Generally I don't like to declare 'winners' or 'losers' of splits, because it's not a goddamn contest, but... if it were a contest, Asunder would be the clear winner.

Track listing:
1. Asunder - The Fall of Elders
2. Asunder - Tides of Ruin
3. Asunder - (Outro) Eulogy Part One
4. Like Flies on Flesh - Prelude to a Storm
5. Like Flies on Flesh - In Spite of You All
6. Like Flies on Flesh - Punishment
7. Like Flies on Flesh - A Pain That Lingers

As they reach with outstretched hands
Seeking a spirit to fill their shell
Souls hide deep in the shadows
Fleeing from that mortal hell
Watch them die
As they march towards the other side
Bound to the hollow promise
Of a heaven sent to this forgotten realm

Where only pain remains

If you like this, try:

Winter -
Into Darkness (1990)

Counterblast -
Balance of Pain (1996)

The Dead - Ritual Executions (2010)

City-leveling Australian death/doom. Beastly, midpaced death infused with a gnarly stoner-sludge groove, and some of the most monstrous-sounding vocals you're likely to hear. It's a much more natural, seamless combination that one might expect, and it makes for a killer fucking record.

Track listing:
1. Burn Your Dead
2. Cannibal Abattoir
3. Centurian
4. Born in a Grave
5. Ritual Executions
6. Blood Angel
7. Death Metal Suicide

Cold as ice
Maggots crawl from its eyes
Skin satanic grey
Born in a grave

You should also listen to:

Skeletal Spectre -
Tomb Coven (2011)

Binah -
Hallucinating in Resurrecture (2012)

Cryptic Tales - Anathema (1992)

Crushing Polish death/doom. Ugly, blasting death metal, ethereal epic doom, and a beautifully punishing combination of the two, colored occasionally by ghostly keyboards. It's a demo, but make no mistake: this is a high-water mark for the subgenre.

Track listing:
1. Anathema
2. Steeple of the Nightmare
3. Live in Vinnless
4. In Grave Rotting Is Slowly
5. Voices Inside the Beast
6. Putrid Mutants

There will be only death

More along these lines:

Sempiternal Deathreign -
The Spooky Gloom (1989)

Winter -
Into Darkness (1990)

Sempiternal Deathreign - The Spooky Gloom (1989)

Essential Dutch death/doom. Short bursts of old-school DM followed by extended passages of epic doom. Predates pretty much all of the usual early touchstones of the subgenre.

Track listing:
1. Creep-O-Rama
2. Resurrection Cemetery
3. Devastating Empire Towards Humanity
4. Dying Day
5. Unperceptive Life
6. The Spooky Gloom

Mephitic earth
It passes away

You'd also enjoy:

Fleshcrawl -
Descend into the Absurd (1992)

Transgressor -
Ether for Scapegoat (1992)

Anathema - The Silent Enigma (1995)

Welp, it's my 200th doom metal-related post. To mark the occasion, I thought I'd post an album that I've been known to refer to as the best doom metal record of all time, with the three caveats: 1) There are plenty of other contenders, 2) It took years to grow on me, and 3) Pretty much no one agrees with me. As far as I'm concerned, though, with this record, Anathema attained a level of atmosphere and epic, monumental sorrow that few bands before or since have matched. At the very least, it's their best record -- unless you prefer their later stuff, in which case, we're just not gonna see eye-to-eye on a whole lot.

The Silent Enigma was Anathema's final full-on doom record before they went prog, and their first with founding guitarist Vincent Cavanagh as lead vocalist. For his part, Cavanagh fully commits to the wrenching, if melodramatic heartache, as he shouts, moans, whispers, and growls in equal measure. (Pretty sure it's his unorthodox approach that turns some people off.) Meanwhile, the guitar interplay is second to none. It often feels as though there's a massive cloud of clean and distorted guitars hanging over everything, but a close listen will reveal a level of thoughtfulness in composition rarely heard, in metal or elsewhere.

Track listing:
1. Restless Oblivion
2. Shroud of Frost
3. ... Alone
4. Sunset of Age
5. Nocturnal Emission
6. Cerulean Twilight
7. The Silent Enigma
8. A Dying Wish
9. Black Orchid

The soul has seen through eyes of heaven
The imperium of earth
Nothing left to perceive

Also listen to:

Mourning Beloveth -
The Sullen Sulcus (2003)

On Thorns I Lay -
Orama (2003)

Serpentrance - The Besieged Sanctum (2015)

[EDIT: Link is fixed. This is the second time this week that Zippyshare has deleted a file that I just uploaded. Gonna switch to a new DL hosting site, and recommendations?]

Russian black/death/doom of the cavernous variety. Maybe you've given up on this style just because so many people are doing it wrong, but I'm keeping the faith, and Serpentrance do it right.

Track listing:
1. Sin
2. The Aphotic Temples
3. Amongst the Timeless Tombs
4. The Tongueless Oracle

Bloodscorched wasteland

More like this:

Embrace of Thorns -
Atonement Ritual (2009)

Mefitic -
Signing the Servants of God (2009)