As sweeping and grandiose as the album artwork, new-age doomers Crypt Sermon deliver a promising, yet somewhat predictable debut
With album art straight out of 1987, Philly doomsters Crypt Sermon took "the metal community" (ugh) kind of by storm with their debut full-length Out of the Garden a few months back. It immediately started getting rave reviews and it seems like Crypt Sermon have replaced Pallbearer as the premier pet band of internet metal nerds. The fickle favor of the 'net can't be mistaken, can it?
Emphatically, yes. Out of the Garden is certainly good, but its greatness will depend on your overall opinion of doom music in general, and in particular how much you like Candlemass, because Crypt Sermon is basically a modern American version of them. So, like Solitude Aeturnus? Right. Since I was never a big fan of those two bands in particular (or this style in general) I'm biased against this stuff, so keep that in mind.
Even as a self-professed non-fan, Out of the Garden does a lot of things right. The vocals are at a good mid-point between growling and opera wailing with enough emotion to at least keep me interested. The songs themselves are mostly solid, and I'll give credit where its due, though I have my doubts about how hard it is to write good doom songs when the format is basically built around big bluesy riffs and grooves. Aside from the final song sounding a bit too much like a Heaven and Hell cover, Crypt Sermon do a nice job of mixing it up and not sounding like total ripoffs (which must be very hard in this genre), and tracks like "Holy of Holies" and "Heavy Riders" are seriously quite good, although the 2nd half of the disc is noticeably weaker than the first.
Out of the Garden is a solid debut from Crypt Sermon -- not exactly breaking the mold (or even attempting to, really) but definitely delivering some above-average classic doom to those pining for the genres glory days (the late 80s I guess?). When these guys are ready to step out from under Candlemass' shadow, I'll be interested in what they come up with.
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