Apostle Of Solitude - Sincerest Misery

Band name and album title already suggest that we are dealing with a doom metal band. You can easily call it ‘classic’ doom, without female singers, violins or keyboards, but with the good (clean singing) vocalist, guitarist, bassist and drummer.

Luckily it does still exist. Band leader Chuck Brown already has some experience, which he picked up with The Gates Of Slumber, where he used to play the drums. Now he admirably wields his guitar and sings in Apostle Of Solitude. On this 70 minute (!) long disc you will encounter many aspects of the traditional doom metal genre.

Like in the first two songs, which are heavily influenced by traditional mid tempo heavy metal, and have many connotations with bands like Solitude Aeturnus and Candlemass. These songs especially are very impressive and make you want to listen to this album over and over. The rest of it is a little less easy to understand. Agonizingly slow tempos, long instrumental passages, a desolate sounding voice and melancholy actually dominate the biggest portion of the record.

Thankfully Apostle Of Solitude does the doom metal tricks very well, which makes sure that it never gets boring. They know how to use their instruments and also are able to work their way to a climax on time. After several listening sessions these are the songs that are addictive, if you’re in the right mood. Good examples of to listen to are songs like The Dark Tower or Warbird. Only on Sincerest Misery (1.000 Days) the band oversteps the mark.

This record is void of commercial contents, something very familiar in the doom metal genre, but as it houses such a lot of class in itself, it will find its way to the real (underground?) doom metal fanatic. A result of that is that this is also available on a double vinyl record, but act fast, as the ‘die hard edition’, is limited to 50 pieces.

8.5

Read more: reviews