Unholy
The Second Ring Of Power

"The Second Ring Of Power," the second album by the Finnish doomsters Unholy, fully fits the definition of a seminal album - imperfect, perhaps even raw, but fundamental for the birth and evolution of a genre.

Released in 1994 by the then newly established Avantgarde of the good Robbie Mammarella (Monumentum), who also took care of the production, it was one of the first cries of Funeral Doom, a genre far from the current results at the time. Certainly, thirteen years later and compared to the latest releases from epigones like Tyranny, it might sound a bit light, but I still clearly remember the shock from these 9 songs dense and thick as a pitch pour, only slightly more airy compared to the contemporary works of Thergothon and Skepticism, but enriched by an acidic feeling and a once-well-done use of synths and female vocals. Imperfect and raw, I said - buzzing guitars, some passages sounding a bit forced, vocals far from easy to digest, with their alternation of very rough growls in the foreground and drunken laments (at times it seems like listening to Aaron of My Dying Bride in a particularly sad drunken stupor). But these are venial sins. For the rest, everything one can reasonably expect from a doom metal album - abysmal drums, leaden riffs, endless melancholy - abounds in this album, moreover graced by decidedly imaginative songwriting for the standards of the genre. So after an almost up-tempo start with the eponymous title track, perhaps one of the least convincing pieces of the lot, from the second track we already settle on slow tempos with "Languish For Bliss", punctuated by sporadic violin interventions, leading to what I consider to be the first peak of the album, that is, the languid, "stoned" "Lady Babylon", a track that after a semi-acoustic start rises in crescendo guided by a female voice (for once far from the usual monochord acute).

A piercing scream introduces the following "Neverending Day", for this writer one of the ultimate manifests of Doom Metal - a gloomy monolith supported by the darkest drumming ever heard, on which Pazi's singing unfolds like a funeral lament for six endless minutes, eventually intertwining with the female voice and violin in an absolutely chilling ending. Also notable are the following "Dreamside" and "Procession Of Black Doom", skillfully balanced between more aggressive parts and acoustic breaks, while "Covetous Glance", an ultraslow excursion led by screamed vocals, is slightly less convincing but lacks the feeling of the previous tracks. The last gasp of the album comes with "Air", with a poignant initial part played on the contrast between growl and female voice (but Theatre Of Tragedy are light years away). A rather baffling closure with the endless "Serious Personality Disturbance And Deep Anxiety", where the vocals abandon any semblance of sobriety to dissolve into a demented babble on the chaos orchestrated by drums, guitar, and synth. A decidedly experimental track, but also decidedly pointless, if nothing else appropriately placed at the end.

Honorable mention for the drug-oriented lyrics, very far from the depression-death-anxiety cliché: each song contains more or less subtle references to a different substance, LSD for the title track, cannabis for "Lady Babylon", heroin for "Neverending Day", and so on - and perhaps this is the only way to explain the psychic collapse of the last track.