Gwonam's Top 5 Albums of 2013: Installation 1

Hanging Garden's At Every Door released 25 January 2013, taking great strides to breathe vitality into the ironically stagnating doom metal genre. For a musical genre fixated on the darker aspects of human nature, you would assume - and be correct - that doom metal is the same old song: Sunn O))) popularized the "play it loud" paradigm that many second wave bands cling for dear life onto, as if Stephen O'Malley is the Noah on the Ark of doom metal prowess. Other veterans like Saturnus choose a dirge-like, dramatic route which has bred it's own imitations since their inception in the early '90s. Enter Hanging Garden, somewhere between the two, forging a record dubbed Inherit the Eden, a foolhardy first try into the fray utilizing the Shape of Despair style as a cookie cutter.

This time, Hanging Garden discard their will to imitate as they have on previous records and envision a new direction for doom metal. You may be able to invoke Swallow the Sun and be somewhat correct. Make no mistake; this doesn't kiss the ass of the omgsogoffik community, whereas StS... haaaah.

The one thing that must be said about this band first and foremost is riffs. If you're looking for doom with riffs, this is your golden apple. Some of the most memorable structures written in music as far as I'm concerned are awash in this record, beginning with Ten Thousand Cranes, the very wavy clean guitar introduction, wading its way into treacherous territory seconds after the first guttural is unleashed. I can't forget a riff on this record and where it starts and how it sounds like, which doom metal's disposition is supposed to embellish upon; not obscure by amplifying the tone beyond recognition or by chugging the same power chords every minute while a delay pedal does the rest of the job.

The aggression and delicacy of all instruments in this record is top tier, from the gentle flutters on Ash and Dustto the grit and dark of tracks like Wormwood or To End All Ages. The vocalist switches things up from traditional doom metal bellows to a very agreeable singing voice. The drumming is never too similar to the rest of the tracks. The record has some "Alcest moments" if I can define it like that, where on the titular At Every Door the band dance with ambiance, open notes and ethereal, reverberating vocals. There are intermittent stops in and out of the record in which this happens, particularly Hegira and the choral and eternally memorable Ash and Dust.

5/5

Put short, this band knows how to do new doom metal right, keeps it relatively simple; bringing the riffs, the melancholic passages and a convincing theme. This is a diamond of modern music and doom metal in general. Forget Candlemass.