Album Review :
Impending Doom - The Sin & Doom Of Godless Men

Band: Impending Doom
Title: The Sin And Doom Of Godless Men
Review By: JoshIVM

Tracklisting:

01. Condemned
02. For All Have Sinned
03. Hell’s Holocaust
04. Patience In Suffering
05. In Reverence Of

Members/Duties:

Brook Reeves: Vocals
Manny Contreras: Guitar
Greg Pewthers: Guitar
Chris Forno: Guitar
David Sittig: Bass
Andy Hegg: Drums

Impending Doom is a self-described “Straight Up Gorship” outfit from Corona, California. “The Sin And Doom Of Godless Men” is an independent demo, which propelled them to sign with independent IWitness Media. IWM in turn pushed them to Facedown Records, even before releasing an album. They will be dropping a full length on Facedown in late August. This band is certainly not for the light of heart. Impending Doom certainly is coming at the perfect time, while grind-influenced bands like Job For A Cowboy and the like, are garnering much popularity and really taking over the U.S. metal scenes. The sounds on this disc will certainly be a first for Facedown and I, for one, am glad to see the expansion of sound there.

The opening track, “Condemned”, starts off with a clip from the recent movie “King Arthur”: “No man fears to kneel before the God he trusts. Without faith, without belief in something, what are we?”. That is a great line and about the only thing on the album you will understand vocally. The vocals are intense and have great range, from guttural lows, to harsh yells, to eardrum-shattering squeals. Lyrically, the band offers hope in a genre that is known for it’s dark and demonic focus. Truly a light in the darkness. Musically, the 5 songs on the demo do not let up their sonic punishment from start to finish. Shredding guitars combined with a constant pummeling from the rhythm section will leave your ears in dire need of a rest. The guitar work is there but it’s hard to hear, but I think that will be taken care of in the Facedown release. Plenty of droning breakdowns can be found, with the pig squeals added for good measure. The drummer offers up plenty of blastbeats, but some of the lower end drums aren’t clear on the demo. The full length will most certainly have a fuller sound and will really enhance each members role, whereas with this demo they all kind of get mixed together.

Overall Rating: This band has a ridiculous amount of potential! The one drawback is the lack of variety, in the album and genre as a whole, will lessen the draw for people who aren’t already fans of grind. I’m hoping that the band will show a bit more variation and branching out musically on the upcoming full length. Either way it will draw back the metal-heads to Facedown, who hopefully in return will sign more metal bands. Grind is truly a hard style to just start listening to, even for metal fans like myself. It tends to lack any sort of popular appeal, but the more I listen to this album the more I become excited for what’s to come!

Standout Tracks: “Hell’s Holocaust”

Recommendation: Borrow From A Friend First
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