Time Signature Winter is coming...

Genre: doom metal

Doom metal from the Land of a Thousand Lakes, "Dead Rising" is the Finnish quintet's debut full length album, and a lesson in the virtues of old school doom metal.

Church of Void draw primarily on traditional doom metal aesthetic, which means that much of the album is really a combination of doom metal and traditional heavy metal, not unlike Pentagram or Cirith Ungol. Consequently, there are plenty of uptempo passages on the album, evolving around crunchy riffs and classic metal darkness. In particular, the first coupe of tracks of the album are in the vein of traditional metal. However, as the album progresses the tempo becomes increasingly slow, and the two last tracks, 'Entity of Kalypso' and 'Little Child Lost' are massively melancholic and heavy tracks which should be instant doom metal classics.

I quite like the structure of the album, which starts out on a somewhat upbeat (as upbeat as possible, for doom metal) note and then becomes increasingly heave, oppressive and bleak. Then totally unexpectedly, 'Little Child Lost' explodes into an aggressive and uptempo punky coda. What a great way to conclude this album.

The production is charactierized by a preference for quality over lo-fi buzz, and the musicianship and songwriting are impeccable. It may take some time to get used to the rather unusual singing style of Mr. Magus Corvus, but it suits the music perfectly.

"Dead Rising" is an excellent doom metal album which should appeal to fans of Count Raven, Altar of Oblivion, Cirith Ungol, and Bedemon as well as Pentagram and Black Sabbath, of course.