MAJESTIC DOWNFALL - The Blood Dance CD
Chaos Records
Genre: Death / Doom
Rating: 5/5
This release won't be out until January 2012 but I'm marking it now as one of the best releases you will hear as far as death doom acts go. Let me introduce to you MAJESTIC DOWNFALL, a one-man doom metal project from Jacobo Córdova who handles all of the instruments aka: guitar, bass, keyboards, drums (he does have a session drummer as well) and the beastly vocals. This is his second release. He also put out a full length in 2009 titled Temple of Guilt which I have not heard. What makes me so excited about The Blood Dance and it's creator Jacobo is not that he's done anything new for the genre. Any jaded tool could give this a spin and say it's average sounding material. The key word there is "jaded" because I don't care if this has been done before. Frankly what hasn't that's actually good? The true greatness of this release is that it's done so well that anyone who considers themselves a fan of death doom will need this as if it were life sustaining.
The opening title cut starts off with an acoustic guitar and keyboard atmospheric ditty which had me wondering whatafuck was up. Twenty seconds into it the song literally explodes forth with the crushing emotional weight of a behemoth landing on your chest. From there the doomish melodies flow like a mighty river of sorrow across the plain of despair. While listening "From Black to Dead" I couldn't help but think of all those videos showing the tsunami waters rolling across the landscape of Japan. Epic and destructive fits this music so perfectly since everything Jacobo does on here is massive. For name dropping purposes I'd say this comes close to early PARADISE LOST. The songs are long bouts of emotional agony with growls of a mighty monster but never dragging ass like one. The atmosphere put forth is thick and bass heavy but constantly in motion pulling you along.
The Blood Dance is one of the best hour's worth of death doom I've heard in a while that never lapses into boring interludes. It's an audio equivalent to a topographical map with inbeded sequences that pop out which break from the constant stream of trudging riffs. "Army of Salvation" is a good example as the opening is filled with a wall of blackened riffs that subside to atmospheric plucking then return to an onslaught rockish pace with bloody throated vocals vomiting forth. Speaking of which Jacobo's vocals are never monotone but cascade with the riffs. Like I've already said, MAJESTIC DOWNFALL's The Blood Dance is now on my list of one of the best for 2012. Come January you will know why.
Label: http://www.chaos-records.com/label/
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