UMUR "Salvation" is the 4th full-length studio album by UK, Halifax, Yorkshire based doom metal act The Prophecy. The album was released through code666 in January 2013. The Prophecy were formed in 1999 and have since the release of their debut full-length studio album "Ashes (2003)" steadily developed their brand of doom metal and increased their fanbase along the way. The lineup hasn´t changed since "Into the Light (2009)", which is a bit of an anomaly when it comes to The Prophecy, which is a band that has been mared by constant lineup changes in especially their formative years.

The music on "Salvation" is at it´s core atmospheric doom metal, but the band skillfully incorporate elements from doom/death metal and progressive metal too. The doom/death element on the album consists of occasional growling vocals. The growling vocals are not a dominant feature in the music though and most vocals on the album are clean sung. The 5 tracks on the 49:25 minutes long album are predominanly slow building (and for the most part around 10 minutes long) and dynamic tracks featuring both mellow melancholic sections and more majestic heavy parts. Sometimes I´m reminded of a heavier version of contemporary Anathema, sometimes a Dead Can Dance influence creeps in and after listening to the album and digging into the music a bit deeper, I´ve also encountered a pretty obvious Fates Warning influence.

The musicianship are on a high level and while lead vocalist Matt Lawson isn´t the most distinct sounding vocalist out there, he is actually pretty skilled and his delivery suits the music well. Personally I could have done without the growling vocals, which are pretty anonymous, but they appear relatively seldom (they are most dominant in the closing track "Redemption"), so it´s not a major issue. "Salvation" features a professional, clear, and powerful sounding production too (although the distorted guitar tone could have been slightly more powerful) and all in all the album is a high quality release on all parameters. A 4 star (80%) rating is deserved.

Warthur Beginning with a doom metal blueprint based on the model of My Dying Bride and similar death-doom acts - which usually I find a rather hit-and-miss proposal - The Prophecy's Salvation almost but not quite wins me over with the band's adept use of progressive rock song structures and carefully crafted atmospherics. Typically, progressive rock influences in metal have tended to focus on faster playing than this - what better way to showcase your technical skills and your super-proggy wacky time signatures, after all? - but here The Prophecy manage to tap into spacier precedents and unlike, say, Anathema don't lose themselves in starry-eyed Pink Floyd worship. A solid release which I think I'd enjoy a lot more more if I liked the death-doom style it draws on a little better; tack on another star if you're a fan of My Dying Bride or other members of that particular Peaceville crowd.

adg211288 It’s inevitable that even when you’re not familiar with an artist’s music, as I wasn’t with that by The Prophecy from the United Kingdom, that when you start reading a lot of hype for that artist you’ll start having high expectations of them. Quite often I find doing so can end in one big disappointment but fortunately that is not the case with The Prophecy and their latest full-length album, Salvation, which is their fourth overall. It could easily have been the usual story for me, since this doom metal band plays exactly the kind of doom metal I find difficult to take in, but to my pleasant surprise after a little perseverance to get into it I’ve found Salvation to be the sort of album that draws me in with its bleak, pondering atmosphere.

The Prophecy’s brand of doom metal is characterised by mostly long songs featuring slow and drawn our passages of music using both a heavy doom metal distorted guitar style and a clean tone guitar style. The vocals by Matt Lawson are primarily sung with a very melodic clean voice which fits in with that overall bleak atmosphere I mentioned. But just when you think The Prophecy might be getting complacent to milk this atmosphere for all it’s worth they go and stir things up by turning their pace up a gear into a much more distinct and direct death-doom metal style, complete with very deep growling vocals. There is also an underlying progressive quality to the music, so even with you’re dealing with the over ten minute tracks that The Prophecy has favoured here (Reflections being the one exception) there’s always a creative spark that keeps the music going.

A side-effect of playing music like this is that there are many times within Salvation’s five tracks (which still adds up to 52:05 worth of music) where things do seem as if they aren’t going anywhere and I’ll be honest, if you’re at all like me when it comes to doom metal, it’s going to be a difficult album to get into for a number of reasons, not least because quite a sizeable portion of the 14:09 minute opening title track will pass before The Prophecy even gives you a hint of the doom metal that lurks within the release. That said I’ve come to appreciate Salvation a lot quicker than some other albums I’ve tried in the genre, and for me that’s a clear showcase of The Prophecy’s talents. A great album tier rating is deserved.

82/100

(Originally written for Heavy Metal Haven (http://metaltube.freeforums.org/the-prophecy-salvation-t2798.html))

Kev Rowland This is the fourth album from this Yorkshire band, but is the first one that I have come across. I see from the biog that they have supported My Dying Bride among others and the label itself have termed them as ‘Doom’. While they have the melancholia of that style of music, that is about it as there are times when the easily the most prominent aspect of their music are Matt’s Lawson’s incredible vocals. Yes there are times when the music slows down and the riffs crunch out, but they can quite easily lead into gently picked chords that are almost acoustic in their approach. The album is only five songs long, but with just one of these under ten minutes in length this is something that actually requires listening to. It isn’t possible to just put this on in the background as there are loads of nuances that only come to light when the listener is playing close attention.

The album was recorded at Priory studios in Sutton Coldfields, engineered by Greg Chandler (Esoteric) and mastered by James Plotkin (Khanate, Lotus Eater’s etc). These guys deserve a special mention as it is the way that the sounds have been constructed that really make this stand out. I have long been a fan of MDB, but to my ears the apprentices may have surpassed the masters with this. This really is an incredible piece of work. www.auralmusic.com

J-Man Hailing from England, The Prophecy is not a band that I've acquainted myself with in the past, but if their previous output is anywhere up to par with the music on Salvation, I've really been missing out! Salvation is the fourth full-length observation from this English doom metal act, and while it primarily focuses on crafting melancholic soundscapes, the album deviates from doom metal conventions in enough ways to make for a fascinating listen. Borrowing elements from other genres and blending them into one coherent sound, Salvation is the work of truly gifted musicians and songwriters.

Salvation is a rather interesting album from a stylistic perspective, as it maintains a doomy and melancholic flair throughout its full duration, but doesn't quite sit right as a traditional doom metal release. The Prophecy borrows from alternative rock, death metal, and Fates Warning-inspired progressive metal in addition to more 'normal' sounding doom metal, and the result is an album that sounds fresh and inspired. Touches of bands like My Dying Bride (especially in their use of violin) or Confessor do appear throughout Salvation, but on the whole, this is a very unique effort.

Nearly all of the tracks here surpass the ten minute mark, so this is an album that will require some attention from its listener. I enjoyed this from first listen, however, and the band's contrast of light and heavy sections especially grabbed my attention. Not too dissimilar from Opeth, The Prophecy utilizes clean guitar sections and singing - sometimes for extended portions of time - and contrasts them with heavier doom riffs and powerful growling vocals. The Opeth comparison is not entirely valid, however, as the heavy portions always remain in doom metal territory rather than a death metal ditto. On the whole, though, the extended compositions and dispiriting atmospheres are likely to appeal to fans of more adventurous metal music. Everything from the funeral dirge opening in "Salvation" to the highly progressive "Redemption" is memorable and engaging, and it's in the songwriting department where The Prophecy perhaps shine the brightest.

There really aren't too many doom metal albums that manage to be as diverse as Salvation while still maintaining a consistent atmosphere, so I'll highly recommend this one to fans of the genre. An engaging and beautiful experience from start to finish, Salvation is an amazing record that marks one of the musical highlights of early 2013. Great work, gentlemen!

Time Signature Reflections...

Genre: progressive doom metal

The progressive doomsters in The Prophecy strike back with a new album in the form of Salvation which is to be released in early February. And fans of melancholic music are really in for a treat here, because this stuff is really good.

As with much doom metal, this is really music for the patient listener. A glance at the tracklist will reveal that there are only five tracks on the album, from which one can deduce that its either a very short album or the songs are very long. Of course, the latter applies with an average song length of 12-13 minutes. Seasoned fans of doom metal and progressive metal will of course already have guessed that this means that there will be a lot of build-ups and break-downs and dynamic song structures on this release.

The title track features a very long introduction with clean guitars an melodic vocals before the distorted guitars kick in, and the song sets of into various grooves accompanied by progressive drumming and a combination of clean and growled vocals. The second track, 'Released' starts out in the vein of more traditional doom metal, but quickly morphs into a mellow and melancholic verse featuring expressive vocals and dynamic drumming. Eventually, it kicks into a midtempo pumping passage with chucking guitars and a couple of groovy patterns as well, followed by another mellow verse, which is in turn followed by a couple of different passages, the last of which has an almost metalcore breakdown feel to it. And fear not, oh metal purists, this works brilliantly. 'Reflections' is with its nearly five minutes of song length a more compact affair, but still The Prophecy manage to take the listener on a journey through various impressions (it even features a pretty cool groovy hard rocking riff of the type that one might encounter in a Fates Warning song). 'Silence' features melancholic keyboards and violins, and 'Redemption' nicely changes back and forth between old school death-doom and more melodic progressive metal and rock parts.

The production is crisp and clean, and the musicianship impeccable. The Prophecy's approach is really eclectic but at the same time very focused. There are elements from death-doom, traditional doom, progressive metal, and alternative rock. You find passages that sound like early Anathema side by side with passages that sound like R.E.M. at their most melancholic. It really requires skilled musicians to pull this off. And pull it off is exactly what The Prophecy do on this album.

Combining doom metal with progressive metal and alternative rock, The Prophecy's Salvation is for more adventurous doom metal fans, so if you are into acts like Chowder, Confessor, Barren Earth, Sorrows Path, and, of course, early My Dying Bride should check this album out.

(review originally posted at seaoftranquility.org)