I rarely, if ever, have been disappointed by Apostle of Solitude. The veteran Indiana doomsters have been at it for more than decade now, and their last three full-lengths have all found favour in my books. (“December Drives Me to Tears” is one of my all-time favourite doom tunes.) These guys tend to be gloomier than most, as their lyrics often deal with real-life struggles, y’know, as opposed to bong-smoking wizards in outer space… which only makes the music that much more impactful.
“Overlord” opens the album on a doomy note, a mid-paced stomper which elicits much headbanging. This instrumental intro lasts a little less than four minutes, before the solemn dirge of “Ruination Be Thy Name” kicks in, a solid, melodic doom number in true AoS tradition, this one also more of the mid-tempo variety, albeit with a slower, melancholic passage leading into a searing guitar solo around the four-minute mark.
After a brief interlude, “Keeping the Lighthouse” comes crashing in with a gloomy riff even more downtrodden that its predecessor, kinda reminding me of Argus with its deadly power/doom vibe. I’m windmill headbanging in slow motion roughly four minutes in. And man, 10-minute epic “My Heart is Leaving Here” hits like a metric fuckton of doom metal bricks. It sounds sorta like Warning with a little more distortion—I *might* have a new go-to Apostle tune.
Releases February 23 on CD, vinyl LP, cassette, and digital formats – CD Pre-order: http://tinyurl.com/yaty2zet | Vinyl Pre-order: http://tinyurl.com/ycjz3elg.
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