Doomsword
Resound the Horn

THE REVIEW

Doomsword…Doom and Sword: two words that belong to a well-defined musical heritage. The origin of both is obvious, doom belongs to doom metal (no kidding?!?) and the second to all that power-epic-fantasy mishmash that has been the fortune of many people who wouldn't know how to do anything else in their life but to sing in semi-falsetto.

However, the offering from the Italian band Doomsword is far from the artificial fluffiness of all those groups that could very easily be mistaken for metal cover bands of Cristina d’Avena. Cadenced riffs bordering on doom, with a shocking and impressive epicness, very few easy listening melodies in favor of the heaviest possible approach, and overall an outstanding performance by Deathmaster, theatrical and majestic like few other singers in the global epic scene.

Of course, the influences of the founding fathers are noticeable, Cirith Ungol, Candlemass, or Bathory above all, but the opportunity to listen to true triumphal marches, without the use of "pompously gaudy" keyboards, without having to constantly skip through endless seconds of guitar technique, or without having to endure the usual monotonous and artificial double bass drumming, hasn’t come around often lately. For this, we must honor a band that, when the trend was represented by groups like Stratovarius, had the courage to do exactly the opposite, filling their pieces with martial mid-tempos, solos with a clear '80s aftertaste, and a lot of epicness.

What really makes this CD beautiful is Doomsword's ability to intelligently mix doom and epic metal without letting one of these two elements prevail over the other, rendering the CD too boring or short-lived. It’s certainly not the classic power-speed CD with which to headbang from start to finish, but it is something different, to be listened to with patience before finally being able to say “I bought a great album.”