WOMEN OF DOOM LP Review

Words El Jefe.

Women Of Doom. I love the sound of that, and this album showcases some of the outlandish talent that can be found amongst the doom scene. It’s a mixed bag as well, with the artists covering a tonne of ground, stylistically (and not ALL doom; this is just women who, in their day jobs, play doom), but all well worth a listen.

Opening the account is Heavy Temple with a tune called ‘Astral Hand’. It’s got some cool slinky riffs, a grunty bass tone and some soaring vocals. This track, being one of the more structured on WOD was a good choice for an opener.

Amy Tung Barrysmith (Year Of The Cobra) delivers a slow-moving Kate Bush-esque spooky choral doom track. Gentle and melodic, it’s got a very liquid sheen to it.

Members of Dozer, Greenleaf, V make up Besvärjelsen (Swedish for conjuring). ‘A Curse To Be Broken’ is a layered kinda tune, with an underlying menace to the song, metal side of doom, a Swedish collective hitting some classic doom.

From where I’m seated, Mlny Parsonz (Royal Thunder) getting two entries on WOD is a good thing. These two songs were my pick of the litter! ‘A Skeleton Is Born’ is sorta folk-doom, whilst ‘Broke An Arrow’ coulda been a Kills tune. Mlny has a great voice, which truly sets off these two tunes.

Frayle give us ‘Marrow’, some slow, crushing doom with eerie vocal.

Containing four outta five members of SubRosa, we find ourselves with The Otolith and their song ‘Bone Dust’; a gentle, ethereal mood piece with a background of strings.

‘Façade’ by Doomstress Alexis has some violin, and an uptempo change thrown into the middle of the song just to stir the cauldron, and just a smattering of screaming guitars to wash it down with. All in all, a classy sounding tune.

Deathbell’s aptly titled ‘Coldclaw’ has an insistent thump to offset its drony vocals, although I did particularly like Lauren Gaynor’s voice on this one.

The Keening – ‘A Shadow Covers Your Face’ features the remaining member from Subrosa, Rebecca Vernon, who gives us a piano instrumental simply called ‘A Shadow Covers Your Face’. It’s a tastefully evocative piece as well.

So that brings us to the end of WOD, a true musical smorgasbord and with most of us human beans relegated to living under a rock and outta sight for the time being, it could facilitate some new relationships with some of those involved in the record.

Women Of Doom is OUT NOW through Desert Records / Blues Funeral Recordings.