I never did get around to writing about Clouds Taste Satanic‘s To Sleep Beyond The Earth. Such is life. That album featured two tracks both breaching 20 minutes of slow and deliberate doom. Thematically consistent throughout, the massive chords projected stateliness and menace. It was as hypnotic and droning as you’d expect from what was essentially one 45-minute track.
On follow-up Your Doom Has Come, CTS cut the track times down significantly with the longest being opener “Ten Kings” clocking in at 8:39. Even though they’ve exercised some brevity there’s no doubt it’s the same band. The general feel of Your Doom is a direct continuation of To Sleep but the riffs feel more urgent, more forceful.
Behind those abrasive doom riffs, layered melodies lurk, tempering the oppression with a sense of uplifting peace. Despite the edge set upon the nerves by the rhythm guitar’s tone, it’s softened somewhat by their locked in groove. While the heads nod involuntarily the mind swims when CTS choose to employ those melodic touches.
For all the hypnotic repetition, even on the shorter tracks, they can still kick it up a notch. “Out Of The Abyss” emerges with a gallop that wouldn’t be out of place on a High on Fire record but still finds time to plod along at a pace more befitting instrumental doom.
Much of the time the songs feel very jammed but there is still good flow leading from one riff to the next with a gracefulness contrasting the crunch.
There is no need for vocals though. There’s not a particular instrumental strain that slots in where vocals would but it doesn’t feel lacking. If there were vocals they’d have to be clean and melodic. It’s better not to think about them at all and soak in the numerous and varied riffs.
Your Doom Has Come bears true to its name, summoning dread and drama and when the pace is right, a desire to become physically involved that To Sleep lacked. It’s not necessarily better, just a different beast. It’s a relatively laid back affair suitable for a number of situations where distraction may not be called for, but concentrated listening yields the desired instrumental doom results. It can actually get fairly intoxicating in its own right, but a little chemical assistance doesn’t hurt either.
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