Time Signature Finality...

Genre: power metal / epic doom metal

While Heaven Wept can be hard to categorize genre-wise. On this album, they draw on power metal and epic doom metal, sprinkling the outcome with progressive elements. The songs ar epic and grandiose, but epic doom metal is not exactly a new thing; I mean, Candlemass and Solitude Aeturnus have been doing it for years. But while the two giants are on the doomier end of the scale, While Heaven Wept are more solidly placed at the power metal end.

The first couple of tracks are uptempo power metal tracks, and it's only in the third track "Obsessions Now Effigies" that some proper doom metal kicks in before that song takes on a higher tempo, too. Interestingly, the opening track sounds like a blend of epic power metal and symphonic melodic black metal - it's pretty good though. The first proper doom metal song is the penultimate track "Saturn and Sacrifice", and that track is very good - a prime example of epic doom metal, as is the 11+ minutes closer "Finality".

Although I think that this album is more in the power metal department, it does capture the melancholy and oppressive atmosphere of doom metal all the way through, and my only point of criticism is that the album could be more balanced by having the tracks more shuffled rather than having all the uptempo tracks in the first half and all the doomy tracks in the second half.

All in all, this is an excellent piece of melancholic and epic metal which takes the best from power metal and epic doom metal.

adg211288 While Heaven Wept are a metal band from the USA whose music combines Doom, Progressive and Power Metal influences. Triumph:Tragedy:Transcendence - Live at The Hammer of Doom Festival – is their first live outing following on from the studio albums, Sorrow of the Angels (1998), Of Empires Forlorn (2003) and Vast Oceans Lachrymose (2009). This live album includes material from all their studio releases and has also been released on DVD (the following review is for the CD version).

Since I don’t know this band very well, I don’t have much to compare these live versions with, but what I’m hearing here has a great sound quality in the live environment, and I thoroughly expect this release to please fans of the band. Having looked through which songs get played the most on Last.fm and finding all the tracks that are on this released in the most played list, I expect the set list will also please the fans, especially those who have not yet had the chance to see them live.

I’m not much of a one for live albums, but this is quite the exceptional release from a very interesting band. The only quibble I think that can really be found with it is that they don’t play the song The Furthest Shore in its entirety, cutting the second half of the song out completely. But overall this sounds really great, and fans also get the chance with this album to hear some of the group’s older material with vocals from Rain Irving. I imagine that any fan of this band will be able to find a home for this in their collection, especially for the DVD version. The songs are great, the performance is tight, and the live recording has come out well. Not much more can be asked for out of a live release though perhaps next time fans would appreciate a much larger package than this festival appearance.

(Review originally written for Heavy Metal Haven)