ANGUISH – Mountain
- Posted on 18-01-2015
Traditional doom done right is an undeniably enjoyable, downtrodden bit of fun. The sheer amount of Candlemass copycats in recent years, however, has been formidable, to say the least! Not a bad thing, to an extent. Some are laughably bad, while others add their own twists and turns to the tried and true classic sound. Anguish, with their recent disc "Mountain," land on the good but not great area of the spectrum.
Composition-wise, everything is solid and done well, yet is also unspectacular. The big riffs are there. Gloomy atmosphere? Present. However, it all feels somewhat like old news. We’ve all heard this before, folks. This is very formulaic doom, but with some harsher vocals than the typical Leif Edling worshiper is used to.
With that said, is this album not worth the time? Not so.
There’s certain reliability to the overall scope of which Anguish provide. Has this style been done better? Certainly so, but this isn’t anywhere near the low end of the pile, either. Anguish presents an easy to swallow pill, and it goes down smooth, without any real surprises. There’s something to be said for something that just plain rocks, and Anguish do accomplish this nicely. "Master of Peak’s Fall" and "The Woven Shield" provide the best examples of flat out, no nonsense old school bleakness that dominate this release.
Anguish provides no frills and nothing that hasn’t been heard before. Those looking for something on the adventurous side, this isn’t going to provide a whole lot of what you’re looking for. If you’re thirsting for some early 90s-inspired doom without all the bells and whistles, one should definitely enjoy climbing this "Mountain." Yup, we went there.
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