Beyond Redemption
The times when death/doom was hype are over and it is this moment where it can be exhibited how difficult was, is and will remain to play this over-criticized genre. To my opinion bands that choose this kind of music nowadays, without embracing gothic/atmospheric and symphonic elements, are, either heroes, or deranged. Therefore I think that De Profundis have an a priori hard task with their decision to honor this genre. The first self-financed album of this British-based act, entitled “Beyond Redemption”, contains five lengthy tracks of what it could be called obscure doom/death metal. The band has an old-fashioned approach and believe me that this is not an accusation, since it may be “passé”, but not obsolete. And old-fashioned doesn’t mean monolithic or one-dimensional, because De Profundis present a multifaceted album that needs proper examination. Influenced mainly by early My Dying Bride they perform confidently and robustly giving you the certainty of a well-prepared band. It is a fact that they seem they have studied thoroughly doom metal, as the riffing shows admiration to more traditional doom metal forms, as expressed by Candlemass or Revelation (well, their non-groovy side). A very positive remark is that they also present a few In the Woods… influences, especially in their atmospheric parts. Speaking of these parts, it is noteworthy that where other bands would have brought tones of keyboards to highlight a melody or an atmospheric passage, De Profundis are grounded on lead guitars or clever bass lines. Let me open a parenthesis here and mention the outstanding work of Aleksej Obradovic on bass, which is hard to be found elsewhere. The band has enriched their music with a few other elements, such as death and -just a few- black metal, where also an old-fashioned aesthetic is adopted. Take for example “Delusion of Life”, which is a typical doom metal track, but the outbursts provide a solid linkage of doom metal with the Swedish old-school of death metal, specifically on drumming.
The band has margins of improvement. I would argue that rhythm guitars could be treated better, resulting into a more compact sound, just like late My Dying Bride, but in general I think that the overall outcome is very good. The album has an elegantly designed artwork by Achilleas Gatsopoulos (Hypnagogia). Greek readers have the chance to check by themselves the quality of De Profundis, as they will hit the stage of March Metal Day together with James McIlroy (ex Cradle of Filth).
7.5/10
London based doom/death band De Profundis’ album ‘Beyond Redemption’ seems to have caused quite a stir. Reviewers are applauding the originality and technical prowess of this band. De Profundis has created their own unique death/doom sound, with smatterings of black metal screams, melodic guitar solo’s, drumming that ranges from traditional doom tempo’s to energetic blastbeats, and atmospheric guitar and bass harmonies that keep you slightly off balance.
The album starts off with an eerie sounding riff working up into a climactic deep death growl as the vocalist contemplates the ‘bleak desolation’ of existence. The middle of the song switches to an atmospheric interlude with tortured whispering over a subtle bass guitar melody, and the mournful sound of twin guitars, then launches back into the death growls and riffing. This 10.33 minute song takes you through a myriad of emotions as it moves through different tempo’s and styles, finally fading into the ‘vast emptiness’.
Track 2 aptly named Delusion of Life is 9 minutes of searing doom lyrics, interspersed with that odd harmonic of the guitars. This song is full of black metal influenced riffs and vocals, flowing back into death growls and a haunting guitar solo. It all works together so smoothly that you’re quite taken aback by the abrupt ending.
Track 3 ‘Nihilism Vortex’ takes the listener into an alternative reality with an intriguing wa-wa guitar effect complementing the depressing lyrics. You are pulled into the agonising vortex by the vocalists tortured scream, only to be assaulted by his anger at society. Another 10 minute track taking you from mournfulness to agony to anger and the realisation that ‘there is no ‘universal truth’. The drumming on this track is powerful, featuring crashing cymbals, fills and rolls.
Track 4 The guitar work in this song is certainly corrosive! ‘Caustic Vexation’ comes oozing through the sound, intensified by the dark growling. There is a temporary reprieve in the form of a wailing desolate guitar over which the lyrics are spoken, before the song launches back into the dark riffing and black metal scream, moving back into the death growls.
The final track is an instrumental, and as the title suggests, it gives the listener a feeling of moving slowly ‘Into Eternity’. Switch off the lights, close your eyes and let the melodic guitars wash over you as the events of your life wander in slow motion through your mind. Drift off into the endless darkness of nothingness. You might just have an epiphany…..
Emotionally this album is a rollercoaster ride. Technically it’s a masterpiece. Each musician displays individuality and originality. The diversity of sounds and styles gripped me from start to finish.
The album artwork created by Achilleos Gatsopoulos, has captured the tortured existence of humanity. This album was recorded and mixed by Steve Watkins at Warehouse Studios and mastered by none other than Tim Turan (who mastered Opeth, Emperor,1349 and Dimmu Borgir amongst others!).
A professional yet self-released affair, ‘Beyond Redemption’ is a monolithic, startlingly developed work in itself. The London band’s debut offering, ‘Beyond Redemption’, conjures fog-cloaked images of early ’90s Bradford but, quite often, blackens ‘em to a crisp, the quintet’s songwriting confidently labyrinthine and engaging across myriad doom/death traditions whilst never over-settling on any particular one. As such, De Profundis are possibly poised to become their own paradigm, or at least justly celebrated. Just massive.
5/6
NTB, Zero Tolerance Magazine (Issue 20)
De Profundis seems to be a band absolutely intent on going against the stereotypes presented to them by geography. I can safely say that while De Profundis plays doom/death metal, they offer essentially no resemblance at all to My Dying Bride, Anathema, or Paradise Lost. In fact, the band’s style of doom/death doesn’t sound much like any other bands out there today. While doom/death generally goes in one of two directions, those being the romantic style of My Dying Bride or the more misanthropic bent of a band like Winter, De Profundis takes a very different and unique approach to the whole thing, going for a more grandiose yet introspective bent. It is indeed one of the more unusual doom releases of the year.
While this is obviously death/doom metal, much of the riffing seems to be taken from what newer USBM artists are doing. Somewhat dissonant, dark, and with a good deal of tremolo, these riffs take the place of nearly everything that you would consider as traditional death or doom riffs. The band moves between tempos of moderate slowness to reasonably high speed, and there’s a surprising lack of straight-up doom plodding like you would expect. The mid-paced sections actually resemble a band like Voivod much more than Candlemass, with strange, spacey riffing and surprisingly active drumming. On that note, the drums on ‘Beyond Redemption’ are much more kinetic than the majority of death/doom, with a wide variety of fills frequently employed, from snare rolls to quick flourishes of double bass and more abstract cymbal work. The bass, additionally, is a surprisingly prominent instrument, often playing radically different melodies from the guitars and adding a tense undercurrent to the music.
The riffing on this album is immensely hard to describe. Generally composed of two guitars, with one playing the bass rhythm and the other playing echoing single notes on a higher string or a separate lead, they are surprisingly atonal most of the time, and even the most melodic riffs get violated by a well-placed pinch harmonic or something similar. There’s little in the way of crushing doom riffs; they’re more subtle and intricate than that, with an almost NWOBHM edge to them at points (the riffing in the middle of ‘Nihilism Vortex’ is very Maidenesque, especially with the pronounced bass accompaniment). And yet, conversely, there are some really aggressive sections on this album as well: ‘A Caustic Vexation’ is quite intense with its blasting sections and growls. The vocals are another strange point of this release; mostly they’re your average death growl mixed with the occasional cleans, but sometimes vocalist Craig Land will launch into a depressive black metal wail out of nowhere. The song structures themselves are similarly aberrant, with sections ending or starting quite abruptly, though it doesn’t seem to disrupt the actual flow of the music much.
My general opinion of the album is good, though it isn’t a very instantly enjoyable work. The band’s lack of straightforward melody and more immediately recognizable elements makes ‘Beyond Redemption’ a harder listen than your average Swallow The Sun album, but it’s probably more worthwhile as well. This is most certainly not the album to investigate if you’re seeking romantic, weepy UK-style doom/death. Fans of Esoteric will appreciate this more than Anathema lovers. Though you should keep this in mind, I would still recommend ‘Beyond Redemption’ to all doom fans willing to look beyond the rather strictly defined conventions of the genre. It is a rewarding and deep listening experience with a long life to it, which is more than can be said for most music out there today.
I always try and reserve some praise for British bands, not just because I’m (relatively) patriotic, but also out of a sense of sympathy. Our metal community is notoriously trend conscious, with the so-called metal fraternity sometimes feeling more like a fashion parade than a scene united from a need for truly extreme and experimental music. Against a backdrop that allowed the nu-metal abortion to gestate well beyond what it should have done, I often feel that it takes a great deal more good luck and hard work for the Brits to “break out” than many of our European cousins. We don’t have the cultural cache of being Scandinavian, we don’t have the denim and leather retro-coolness of our southern hemisphere friends, and let’s face it, the yanks think we’re a joke.
All that rant aside, it’s refreshingly nice to be able to actually praise a British band simply on the basis that they’re really good. In this case, De Profundis aren’t just good – they’re probably one of the most exciting things I’ve heard from a band at the demo stage since I joined the staff here at Live4metal all those moons ago. It’s also nice, being a doom fan at heart, to be able to point to a band that in their own way are every bit as extreme and “out there” as anything that the death metal or black metal crowd has to offer.
DP (as I’m sure they will hate me for dubbing them) are at heart, I guess, a doom band, though strictly speaking they come off as more of a doom/death band with melodic and even black metal influences. No, really. This is engaging, atmospheric and supremely intelligent music. From the brittle guitar lines and really outstanding bass playing, to the vehemently bellowed vocals – all backed up with drums that transform from the standard doom crawl to blastbeats, this is unmissable throughout. Opener “In Contemplation of Existence” manages to cram into its mere ten minutes more twists and turns than entire Mithras albums. The lyrics, while simply phrased enter the headspace of the contemplative listener perfectly. “Delusion of Life” is both brutal and alluring, lurching from a monolithic doom stomp to a more up tempo slap-bass driven section that simply takes the breath away. Jazz influences, usually enough to make me want to cut my own ears out with the nearest sharp implement actually seem to work here, while the echoey progressive Pink-Floyd on PCP headfuck intro that introduces “Nihilism Vortex” transforms itself into a sprawling monster tearing itself triumphantly from a festering cocoon. The haunting dissonance and clean vocals of “A Caustic Vexation” give the song a truly spectral feeling, while an engaging instrumental finishes off the package.
Sometimes you just want to thrash. For the other times, for the times when you need to think, to reflect and to feel, this is the perfect music. My only gripe is that there just isn’t enough music here. I really, really like this – and I think you will too.
Although they had some early line-up changes, they managed to stay alive and eventually release their first full-length album called “Beyond Redemption” on the 21st of August, in 2007. It was financed and distributed by themselves.
From the first time I listened to this disc, one band came to my mind and that was “My Dying Bride”. So as you can see, this band plays the British style of the Death Doom Metal genre. But they’re definitely not a copy-cat of the fore mentioned band, since I could say they have their own attitude. As I’ve noticed from the names of the band, the line-up consists of many nationalities and that definitely brings some diversity in the sound.
The music is full of heavy guitars in a slow tempo, accompanied by rough guttural vocals. Although the band says in their biography, that they tried to scrap their melodic sound, I still find some nice melodies in the guitars mixed with some groovy bass lines. That’s a nice change in the sound, since long songs can become boring. The double-bass drums and the blast beats also help to change a bit the tempo and the additional screams and growls keep the listeners interest awake. But the song I loved more was the last one; a great instrumental track having almost the half duration of the others, with a much more melodic sound that still fits the spirit of the record; a very good choice to close this album. I wish there were more like this or maybe the other could borrow elements from this…
It would be a shame to forget to mention the great album art. I know many bands don’t pay much attention to it, but it’s one of the most essential parts of the album and De Profundis have done a really good choice here. I think this is the best possible art work for their music, since the colors of the painting represent the color of the music enclosed.
Closing this, if I had to suggest something to the band, that would be the addition of keyboards, since they can enrich their atmosphere a lot. Anyway, this is a good album and it would rather be more attractive to those in the Death Doom genre than those not used to extreme metal. A very good debut that may open many doors for the band.
London 2007 – it’s turning into Bradford circa 1991 at the moment with a veritable surge of high-quality Doom bands bursting forth from the musty confines of the underground. The last couple of years have seen acts such as Pantheist, Centurions Ghost and Indesinence take their place in the roster of great British doom metal bands - and now we have De Profundis who with their self-released debut ‘Beyond Redemption’ are aiming to catapult themselves into this ‘premier league’ of UK doom. In some ways, it is a miracle that the album was even recorded – in barely a year-and-a-half of existence, the band have endured more line-up changes than most groups encounter over careers spanning decades (most notably the departure of their previous drummer barely a month before this recording!). Nevertheless, founder members Craig Land (vocals) and Roman Subbotin (guitars) have exhibited a steely determination to see things through and replacement sticksman Dave Andrews has done a fine job in providing the percussive backbone to this release.
The capable five-piece have certainly spared no expenses and from the excellent cover art/layout (courtesy of Achilleos Gatsopoulos) to the powerful production and Tim Turan’s sterling mastering job, ‘Beyond Redemption’ oozes professionalism. De Profundis adopt a resolutely British approach to their funereal doom death – searing My Dying Bride-esque twin guitar harmonies, bowel-shaking growls courtesy of Land and the occasional delay-drenched solo all serve to create a bleak and miserable soundscape. ‘In Contemplation of Existence’ is a slow-burning starter, Aleksej Obradovic’s subtle bassline providing a suitably desolate introduction before the guitars of Subbotin and Soikot Sengupta crash in like waves against rocks. The track escalates as it advances, climaxing with some thrash-paced aggression before settling into a militaristic finale. ‘Delusion of Life’ continues in much the same vein, chugging chords contrasting with more progressive elements in the shape of some delicate guitar & bass interplay. Track three ‘Nihilism Vortex’ is a definite highlight, bringing some psychedelic touches to the table which erupt into blast-fuelled mania mid-way through (with Land providing some very Bethlehem-inspired howls). Last track proper ‘A Caustic Vexation’ is perhaps the most ‘doomy’ here of all, slow, torturous and grinding with frequent interludes of mournful clean guitar and despair-laden feedback.
All in all, this is an impressive debut – the production is perhaps a little dry in places (more reverb on the drums and vocals would have aided in providing greater atmosphere) and I think it’s also fair to say that some of the guitar harmonies come across as somewhat over-familiar. Nevertheless, for a new band who seem to have had the odds stacked against them from the start, it’s well worth checking out –it’s pretty obvious to me that before long, De Profundis will be standing alongside the aforementioned heavyweights of the ‘new wave of UK doom metal’. The CD is available from the band themselves so head to their myspace and obtain a copy.
A beautiful alchemy made this manifestation of De Profundis. Between the shadows of quite aggressive doom and illuminating progressive parts, “Beyond Redemption” proves to be a clever and varied album. We can’t deny a few weaknesses however. Like a certain lack of “power” in a few places or 2-3 riffs that could be revisited since they seem to break an emotional flux. Because De Profundis indeed passes something to the listener, hearing this album leaves a different and difficult to define impression, between enchantment and darkness.
Is it some brave and personal passages, a typically British thing (Of the kind that makes you want to listen to the CD again)? Or is it the inventiveness of their excellent bassist who manages to give all the songs a special dimension with his tortured audacity? In any case, under an austere aspect “Beyond Redemption” has something special. With deep, guttural singing, the band passes from nightly slowness to striking dark/death whilst treating the listener to a few solos and even acoustic passages.
What else can be said except that “Beyond Redemption”, with 4 songs of more than 9 minutes each (The last is an instrumental), will make you think of early Opeth, except less spacey and most of all more “doom”. I’m going back to listen to it, something still escapes me…
(translation from French by M. Fernandes)
4/5 Darkgrinder (in original French)