Doom Metal – Page 4 – Metal Eclipse Reviews

Völur & Cares – Breathless Spirit

Metalcatto

I’ve seen it all in my short life—from bands trashing venues for fun to false nuclear armageddons. Not much surprises me anymore. And yet, the world still has some strange tricks up its sleeve. This is where Völur & Cares step in. The band claims to be an Experimental Doom act, but to me, Breathless Spirit is pure Avant-Garde Metal. I mean, how else do you describe a Metal album with no guitars—just bass, violin, and drums—centered on an epic Icelandic saga? It’s full-on weirdness, and we’re diving straight in.

Eternal Darkness – Eternal Darkness

Metalcatto

I usually don’t give much context about the bands we review at MER, but this time is different—and not just because it’s a Swedish band again. Eternal Darkness – Eternal Darkness is a debut that took 35 years to get done. I wasn’t even born when the first idea for it started emerging! And yet, I find out the band has already split. Dead before being properly born—well, it can’t get more Death Metal than that. Let’s get to it!

True kvlt: Lacerations, Mosara, & Chrysalïd

Metalcatto

It feels like fame has gotten to the top of my head and I’m starting to neglect the deep underground, right? Just kidding! But we’ve had a lot of special articles and high-profile reviews lately, and—as usual—the local bands pay the price like innocent bystanders. So now I’m bringing back a bit of justice, even if just for a moment, in this sorrowful world… Wait, what am I trying to say? It’s sunny outside—let’s stick to that mood. Let’s go!

Katatonia – Nightmares as Extensions of the Waking State

Stargazer Scholar

In 1741, J.S. Bach published a set of compositions that later became known as the Goldberg Variations, all the thirty pieces whereof explored the bass line and the chord progression of a single aria. In 1934, Sergey Rachmaninoff wrote his Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini, which reproduced, inverted, and otherwise transfigured the great Italian’s 24th Caprice. In 2025, Katatonia’s new album, Nightmares as Extensions of the Waking State, comes out… And I reckon you can see what I’m driving at.

Lightless – A Foreseen Loss

Pegah

“Yes, the day the world ended and nobody was innocent again. God, how swiftly it all fell down!” ― Arthur Miller, After the Fall.

Mortuanima -Bleak Transcendence

Pegah

Mortuanima (“dead soul”) is the debut album by Brazilian Funeral Doom trio Bleak Transcendence, composed of musicians Alexandre Antunes, Michael Siegwarth, and Wagner Müller. This album tells a mournful story of forgotten souls, lost dreams, and the weight of irreversible loss. The artwork, much like the music, blurs the line between life, death, and the unknowable, framing Mortuanima as a chilling meditation on existential horror. The distorted human figure on the cover evokes decay and spiritual corruption, while the mirror serves as a symbolic portal between the realms of the living and the dead. In the background, a shadowy staircase hints at fading memories and abandonment—a fitting visual for an album steeped in sorrow and reflection.

Ornamentos del Miedo – Vacio Como El Tronco De Un Arbol Muerto

Pegah

Sometimes, you don’t need to understand the language to feel the music. That’s exactly how I felt listening to Vacío como el tronco de un árbol muerto, the newly released album by Ornamentos del Miedo. Founded in late 2017 by Ángel Chicote in Burgos, Spain, Ornamentos del Miedo is a one-man Funeral Doom/Death Metal project that delves deep into themes of melancholy, existential dread, and sorrow. After the breakup of his former band, Graveyard of Souls, Chicote set out to craft slow, atmospheric compositions marked by mournful guitar melodies and deeply philosophical lyrics.

Tetramorphe Impure – Sunset of Being

Pegah

Tetramorphe Impure is a one-man Funeral Doom/Death Metal act based in northern Italy, led by multi-instrumentalist Damien. Originally formed in 2006 as a trio, the project eventually became Damien’s personal outlet. Musically, Tetramorphe Impure blends the crushing heaviness of Funeral Doom with the raw force of Old-School Death Metal and the somber textures of early Doom-Death. After a long period rooted in the underground scene, the project finally unveiled its first full-length album, The Sunset of Being.

Messa – The Spin

I have two awkward confessions. First, I almost forgot we’ve got this promo because, well, I now get more emails than a professor on sabbatical. Second, though, Messa has always been interesting and engaging—it’s a band that never really caught me. It always felt like retro-Metal to me, but now that I give The Spin a spin (don’t hit me!), could my opinion finally change? The band has been at it for a while, but it’s never too late for me to start a redemption arc, right?

Tribunal – In Penitence and Ruin

Sometimes in metal, as in life, appearances are deceiving. For example, I’m an invisible Metalhead – you’d never guess I belong to this illustrious community. So when Tribunal‘s Penitence and Ruin promo arrived from 20 Buck Spin, I assumed we had another reliable but predictable old-school Death Metal album on our hands. You know, the typical 3.0/5.0 or maybe slightly better. Oh, but I was surprised to find out this isn’t just a Doom Metal band – it’s a Symphonic Doom Metal band (I can already imagine some of you salivating over that). So, let’s see if this formula works.