KINGDOM OF SORROW – Kingdom Of Sorrow

A band called Kingdom of Sorrow released their first album, which features a knight on a white horse stomping over a graveyard on its cover, with birds under a sky sending crashing lightning down to the ground, with everything held in dark blue and black colors? What does all of that indicate? Perhaps:

Dark, menacing sounds? Check!

Heavy guitar, stomping bass? Check!

A raw production? Check!

Aggressive vocals? Check!

A nihilistic attitude? Check!

The masterminds behind this album are Kirk Windstein, who is known for being the head of Crowbar and Down, and Jamey Jasta, the shouter of Hatebreed. It seems the idea was to combine Hardcore and Doom, to take a Crowbar Doom monster and piss it off. The result fits this description exactly, one could add a few influences from Paradise Lost’s Doomy phase (around Icon) and call it Sabbath-core. Over a thick carpet of bass and drums with occasional double bass eruptions, Windstein’s fittingly crunchy guitar parts with a raw, garage sound build the backbone of every song, and Jasta’s shouting contains just enough melody to keep tracks from being monotonous, but remains extremely aggressive. In some songs, the Doom side is overpowering like in “Demon Eyes (Demonized)” and “With Unspoken Words,” sometimes Hardcore peeks through the chords like in “Piece It All Back Together,” and sometimes it takes the upper hand like in “Lead The Ghosts Astray.”

This is exactly what one could expect of those two musicians. After the two names have been spoken, if asked what an album resulting from the collaboration of these guys would sound like, everybody would be able to describe this release. It is the mixture of jumping and banging, Doom and mosh pits that will makes their target market’s mouths water. Since the eleven tracks hardly deviate from the chosen path, the recipe loses a bit of its taste towards the end. Only “Screaming Into The Sky” lets one look up. Jasta can actually sing! Clean vocals was not what could have been expected after two thirds of the album, but this is the only unusual part in about 40 minutes of this straight, retro-Metal-Doom-core mélange.

If the two musicians continue to collaborate, they need to push the boundaries of their musical universe a bit to avoid copying themselves. It may be interesting to hear what experiments the guys can come up with, but in the meantime this is a good piece of red hot Metal.