While Heaven Wept
Of Empires Forlorn

Doom.
Yes, but less dark, less heavy, almost cheerful and at times epic.

These are my first impressions after listening to the opener of this "Of Empires Forlorn," the second official work for the Americans While Heaven Wept. The fact that they are American inspires a bit of healthy compassion because, not being Scandinavian, no one will care about them, and I've stumbled upon the usual ultra unlucky group that no one knows but has been elevated to the banner of some alternative flag of doom by some critic. Remembering that doom bands are rarely Scandinavian and especially realizing that I was starting to make really big claims, I am about to continue the review in a decidedly more canonical way.
It's a pity because I really wanted to destroy this band and present it as a nice combo (I love this word...) of losers... really a pity.

Second CD we were saying... well, not having the first one, I couldn’t really tell you if they have changed genres during their stylistic journey, and anyway, I doubt it would matter to you. Anyway, let's get back to the actual CD.
First of all, it presents with a beautiful artwork, or at least a beautiful cover as I don't have this CD but the cover seems nice, though you never know, inside there could be anything, even disconnected sentences without meaning or punctuation like this. Very beautiful, we were saying, the first track "The Drowning Years" where Tom Philips' clear, limpid, and at times epic voice reigns supreme, supported by an excellent riffing, not too slow but not at the limit of death metal, let's say just necessary to fit into the cataloging of doom metal.
Excellent the first track, we were saying... yes, really excellent. Too bad there are six more tracks that are not really excellent. If in "The Drowning Years" the sad and slow doom metal perfectly blended with catchy and captivating melodies, in the second track "Of Empires Forlorn," it returns to significantly slower rhythms, decidedly boring the listener who was greatly excited after the first promising minutes of this record. The same goes for the third "Voice In The Wind," where instead slickness and sweet melodies prevail, all wrapped in an aura of epicness very à la Queen.

It's a pity these are While Heaven Wept and not Queen, an American band that made a decent doom record, very relaxed, almost at the border of rock, where the songs tend to resemble each other a bit too much, both for the beautiful but monotone tone of Philips and for the static nature of the songs... sure, it's still doom, but Anathema and Paradise Lost do not induce such a deep state of catatonia.

Decent, not beautiful, not ugly... maybe not even decent... it depends on the tastes; I would say mediocre. The first and fourth tracks are saved, the fifth is awful.