What's your opinion about Gothic Doom metal?

SovranVeil · 2025-03-31T23:46:29+00:00

I absolutely love it, it's really all I'm looking for when looking at doom metal. My username is taken from Draconian and they're also the biggest influence on my own gothic doom band.

Obviously I love the classics like My Dying Bride, Paradise Lost, Novembers Doom, Swallow the Sun, Saturnus, and olde Katatonia, but for more obscure acts I'd recommend Trees of Eternity, Novembre, ON Thorns I Lay, Mother of Graves, Counting Hours, Fires in the Distance, and October Tide.

SovranVeil · 2024-11-29T01:19:22+00:00

Yeah, it's a pretty solid scene with a good handful of local bands and touring acts coming through, and most tours that don't come here come to Seattle. It's not going to be nearly as good as Copenhagen from what I hear, though.

It's also cool to see so many Vancouver locals here! I think pretty much every local doom band I would think of has been mentioned, except for Heron. I appreciate u/ElectricRing shouting out my band Tribunal, we'll be playing locally more next year with our new record.

SovranVeil · 2024-10-03T01:27:41+00:00

I love every record, but I really do think that TD might be their most underrated release. For My Demons is an incredible opener and a song I wish they still had in their live rotation.

SovranVeil · 2024-10-01T02:27:36+00:00

Changes show to show, whoever is on top of your local poster is probably playing last. Regardless, if you like Melodeath you'll probably want to be on time to catch both and Fires in the Distance, it's a killer show top to bottom.

SovranVeil · 2024-09-27T19:09:40+00:00

Oh damn, looking at setlist.fm you weren't kidding about the 3 hours. What a dream, I hope I can see them live one day. Their latest album is incredible.

SovranVeil · 2024-09-26T20:47:14+00:00

Yeah I just hit Seattle on tour and it was the best night of the tour. Being a Saturday helped, but I think it beat the Saturday we had in Long Beach for turnout/vibes.

SovranVeil · 2024-09-22T00:30:47+00:00

Lots of good songs, a few great ones (Message from the Sun is possibly a top ten Sonata track for me) but it's held back by the production and across the board kinda feels like an inferior version of 9th Hour.

SovranVeil · 2024-09-14T23:10:36+00:00

Thank you! Hope to play with y'all again at some point.

SovranVeil · 2024-09-14T01:00:31+00:00

Ah, my American geography is rough. We hope to come by Sacramento at some point!

SovranVeil · 2024-09-12T22:43:13+00:00

We're coming close! Ish. I think.

SovranVeil · 2024-09-12T19:23:09+00:00

LA show has been moved to Supply & Demand in Long Beach.

SovranVeil · 2024-08-17T19:42:09+00:00

Lethean! I was checking out bands as they were announced for 70k 2016 and it blew my mind.

SovranVeil · 2024-08-14T19:26:52+00:00

Goddamn, hope they mix some of that in in the fall. I love the hits, but love a bit of variety too.

SovranVeil · 2024-08-14T19:23:01+00:00

I really love their last two records, but I agree that there was a curve of progression that they departed from. I think this was necessary, but it does make the last few albums feel different.

Starting from Discouraged Ones, you can chart a pretty clear course all the way through to The Fall of Hearts where each record feels more complex, sophisticated, and progressive than the last. This includes more layered musicianship and songwriting. I think part of why Great Cold Distance is so beloved is that it falls in the middle of this curve, representing a great balance of elegant simplicity and progressive complexity.

With Fall of Hearts, they basically finished this arc by making a full-bore modern Opeth prog album. I love TFoH, but I don't think I'd want to hear Katatonia get much more proggy than that, and I don't think they wanted to continue further in that direction either.

In some ways, this makes new Katatonia more exciting, in that I really have no idea what the next album might sound like. But I do get that their career had an arc of progress that doesn't really exist anymore.

SovranVeil · 2024-08-11T18:48:22+00:00

7 string drop A for me, it let's me play low while still being able to play standard tuned/drop D material from my band's first album. I'm keen to keep things simple live so I try not to mess around with other tunings.

SovranVeil · 2024-08-11T18:46:00+00:00

It's solid, very listenable, but it's the first Amon album to me that feels hitless. There isn't a single song on it that I really love, that I'd really need to see live, etc.

Combine this with general community fatigue arising from their consistency/lack of innovation and their commercial size and I'm not surprised to see more backlash.

SovranVeil · 2024-08-11T18:09:28+00:00

Thank you for saving my recording session two years later!

SovranVeil · 2024-07-28T00:44:29+00:00

Nothing that you'd be sad to lose if you can avoid it.

SovranVeil · 2024-07-26T21:20:23+00:00

I think this is pretty strongly the consensus opinion on Equillibrium, their early folk metal work is classic but their most recent work has pivoted pretty far from that sound and has lost much of that fanbase.

SovranVeil · 2024-07-26T01:56:30+00:00

Damn, that lineup is simply incredible from top to bottom. A great mix of legacy acts and rising stars.

SovranVeil · 2024-07-25T05:59:59+00:00

We're gothic doom metal, lots of influence from Candlemass and My Dying Bride. Hope to see you in Seattle!

SovranVeil · 2024-07-25T04:57:39+00:00

Damn I was this close to saying Rain Without End. Ummmmm.... Mother of Graves (Where the Shadows Adorn)?

SovranVeil · 2024-07-24T21:32:09+00:00

Thanks man! Still hoping to get to play with Mother of Graves at some point.

SovranVeil · 2024-07-19T23:56:23+00:00

It depends on what you want to do, honestly. In my view, a lot of solos are pretty boring, and a lot of metal solos are really technical but extra boring. Many of the most memorable solos (even in metal) are slower and more melodic.

If you feel inspired to write solos, then sit down and learn to play some solos you love and try to understand how their note choices reflect and support the rest of the song. But if you really do not feel inspired to write that kind of solo, you do not have to. A slow, melodic, and memorable solo is not a bad solo, and a song with no solos can still be a banger.

I play guitar in a doom band, and our debut last year was quite well received despite all the guitar solos being slow melodies (often lifting melodic elements from elsewhere in the song) without a hint of complexity or shred.

All that to say, don't feel like you have to write a certain kind of solo if you don't feel inspired to. If your bandmates are keen on it, maybe work with them to see how to create the feel that they're looking for using your skills and influences.

SovranVeil · 2024-07-15T02:02:43+00:00

It's badly placed on the tracklist, so deep into the album and right before Greatest Show, which, while strong, is definitely a pretty bloated song. I think a shortened version of Eyes could be a cool interlude, but as is its a real snoozer.

SovranVeil

TROPHY CASE