Rotting Kingdom is a US band which plays death doom metal. On March 13th (yes, that was a Friday), they released A Deeper Shade of Sorrow via Godz Ov War Productions. Let’s give it a spin!
First up: Sculpted Into Life by the Hand of Death. This song is 8 minutes long and a lot happens there: it starts off very melodic and harmonious – but only for about 2 minutes, and then the growls happen. The song stomps along in quite a doom-y fashion for another two minutes and then switches to a beautiful, soft instrumental bridge, that carries the deep growls that set in after a while. Finally, the pace picks up towards the end, ending in an epic outro. That vibe is picked up the following song, Barren Harvest. Again, there’s a more doom-metal influence to be found as well as heavier parts. Next up: Decrepit Elegance. It’s a purely instrumental song and with just one minute length an interlude rather than a track on its own – but very calming and ambient, the absolute contrast to what’s about to happen next: Absolute Ruin is a dirty, heavy death metal track that kicks you right in your behind. Unfortunately, the pace again slows down towards the end, which, in my opinion, is a pity. Some aggression up until the end would have made that song to really stick out from the rest. That’s mainly because the other two tracks, The Antechambers of Eternity and A Deeper Shade of Sorrow, are more doom metal tracks and could have used that aggressive counterpart well. Nevertheless, the whole record blends together well.
In conclusion: this 6-track, roughly 40-minute-long offering is a true death/doom metal blend. The songs are quite diverse. All songs revolve around, how could it be any different, death and doom. Oh yeah! That’s the soundtrack for your winter blues, and it’s well done, at that – so give it a spin. 9.5/10.
Here you can also read our earlier review of Rotting Kingdom’s self-titled album.
