Crypt Sermon The Ruins Of Fading Light - available via Dark Descent Records
Philadelphia's Crypt Sermon have returned with a righteous full length that preaches a perfect gospel of doom. This album kicks ass, and will be included in many best of 2019 lists.
Crypt Sermon might be classified as doom, but this record struck me as a well-rounded offering of classic metal. I heard flashes of Testament, Judas Priest, Metallica, Candlemass and Helloween, all fine bands to be mentioned with. These gentleman know how to play their instruments. You can listen to their other band Daeva (featuring Crypt Sermon's bassist Frank Chin, drummer Enrique Sagarnaga and guitarist Steve Jansson) if you want to hear them unleash a volley of speedy licks and blast beats. By contrast, The Ruins Of Fading Light showcases their maturity as songwriters. The riffs are grand, haunting, and rightfully take their time to sink in and set the atmosphere. The term "epic" gets thrown around too loosely these days, but it justly describes the scope of Crypt Sermon's compositions.
Like any great album, the songs stuck in my head and stayed there for several days after my initial listen. I found myself rushing to give the album a second play through, to pump my fist and hum along to their heavy hymns like "Black Candle Flame" and "Key Of Solomon." Today's doom metal often translates to me as "slow" and "boring," but this album has a punchy energy to each song, the optimal tempo to bang one's head and doom dance in a live setting.
The instrumentation is air tight, but the real star of the show here is vocalist Brooks Wilson, who also designed the album artwork. Wilson's powerful voice imparts the emotional bravado, and playfully jumps around the catchy melodies with a sense lightness. I caught shades of Candlemass' Messiah and Testament's Chuck Billy at several points throughout the album. Wilson also doubles as a sort of narrator, who often sings in the first person to flesh out a story. Immediately, the hypnotic passages made me feel like I was on a desolate journey, perhaps in the company of a Holy Man, a thief and a crusader, on a trek across a smoldering landscape in the dark ages. Again, I craved repeat listens, not only to soak in the rich hooks and wailing guitar leads, but to also understand the lyrical concepts.
This leads me to another mark of a great album - The Ruins Of Fading Light is a thoroughly engrossing musical experience that is sure to let your imagination run wild. I haven't studied the lyrics word for word, but to me, this album played out like Cormac MacArhur's Blood Meridian set to the medieval backdrop of Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal. It's got Biblical passages, high magic, and of course, heathens being burned at the stake, as masterfully played out in the crushing track "Beneath The Torchfire Glare."
Congratulations to this Philadelphia powerhouse for a magnum opus of a record. Loudwire called this one of the best doom records of the last 25 years, but I say to hell with genres. This is an all time, all around great heavy metal record, that will readily withstand the test of time smoother than a barrel of aged scotch.
Listen to The Ruins Of Fading Light streaming in its entirety via Decibel. Philadelphia maniacs, see Crypt Sermon this Friday when they destroy Philamoca with Eternal Champion on September 6.
Philadelphia's Crypt Sermon have returned with a righteous full length that preaches a perfect gospel of doom. This album kicks ass, and will be included in many best of 2019 lists.
Crypt Sermon might be classified as doom, but this record struck me as a well-rounded offering of classic metal. I heard flashes of Testament, Judas Priest, Metallica, Candlemass and Helloween, all fine bands to be mentioned with. These gentleman know how to play their instruments. You can listen to their other band Daeva (featuring Crypt Sermon's bassist Frank Chin, drummer Enrique Sagarnaga and guitarist Steve Jansson) if you want to hear them unleash a volley of speedy licks and blast beats. By contrast, The Ruins Of Fading Light showcases their maturity as songwriters. The riffs are grand, haunting, and rightfully take their time to sink in and set the atmosphere. The term "epic" gets thrown around too loosely these days, but it justly describes the scope of Crypt Sermon's compositions.
Like any great album, the songs stuck in my head and stayed there for several days after my initial listen. I found myself rushing to give the album a second play through, to pump my fist and hum along to their heavy hymns like "Black Candle Flame" and "Key Of Solomon." Today's doom metal often translates to me as "slow" and "boring," but this album has a punchy energy to each song, the optimal tempo to bang one's head and doom dance in a live setting.
The instrumentation is air tight, but the real star of the show here is vocalist Brooks Wilson, who also designed the album artwork. Wilson's powerful voice imparts the emotional bravado, and playfully jumps around the catchy melodies with a sense lightness. I caught shades of Candlemass' Messiah and Testament's Chuck Billy at several points throughout the album. Wilson also doubles as a sort of narrator, who often sings in the first person to flesh out a story. Immediately, the hypnotic passages made me feel like I was on a desolate journey, perhaps in the company of a Holy Man, a thief and a crusader, on a trek across a smoldering landscape in the dark ages. Again, I craved repeat listens, not only to soak in the rich hooks and wailing guitar leads, but to also understand the lyrical concepts.
This leads me to another mark of a great album - The Ruins Of Fading Light is a thoroughly engrossing musical experience that is sure to let your imagination run wild. I haven't studied the lyrics word for word, but to me, this album played out like Cormac MacArhur's Blood Meridian set to the medieval backdrop of Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal. It's got Biblical passages, high magic, and of course, heathens being burned at the stake, as masterfully played out in the crushing track "Beneath The Torchfire Glare."
Congratulations to this Philadelphia powerhouse for a magnum opus of a record. Loudwire called this one of the best doom records of the last 25 years, but I say to hell with genres. This is an all time, all around great heavy metal record, that will readily withstand the test of time smoother than a barrel of aged scotch.
Listen to The Ruins Of Fading Light streaming in its entirety via Decibel. Philadelphia maniacs, see Crypt Sermon this Friday when they destroy Philamoca with Eternal Champion on September 6.
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