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FORSAKEN :
ANIMA MUNDI

No, this is not the Gothenburg, Melodic Death-Metal band "The Forsaken" who have released three discs on Century Media. This is a longer running (since '91) Doom-Metal outfit from Malta. Yes, Malta, that little island south of Sicily. Geography aside, Forsaken are an oddity in the Doom-Metal world for another reason as well. You see, most Doom-Metal bands fit into one of two distinct categories. There are those that are off-shoots of Death-Metal, and still posses an underlying current of said genre, such as My Dying Bride, early Theatre Of Tragedy and Paradise Lost, etc. Then, there are those that fall into the Stoner / Sabbath-influenced category such as Pentagram, Sleep, Electric Wizard, etc. Forsaken however do not fit into either of these two groups. Instead, if you stripped all the plodding, depressive, doomy elements from this band, what you would find at the core, is a basic Power-Metal structure. That little quirk makes the Forsaken both interesting and unique, yet sort of hard to get your head around on the first listen. The vocals from Leo Stivala, unlike most Doom frontmen, are super-clean. Try to imagine if Iron Maiden decided to go Doom, and you might have a start at what to expect here. There are some genuinely catchy riffs here, and some fine songs. I don't know however if the general Doom enthusiast will dismiss "Anima Mundi" for not being quite heavy enough, or for being too clean sounding. But, for those that aren't locked into the "rules" of their chosen sub-genre, Forsaken should make for a nice change of pace. My only complaint is that I think some of these nine and ten-minute songs could have been trimmed back a little. Although for most Doom fans, it's the longer the better, so what do I know? For more info, you can find the band hanging out at forsakenmalta.com.
RATING = 7.5 Doom-ish Power-Metal (Released 2004)

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FORSAKEN :
DOMINAEON

I kind of dug last year's effort from these isle of Malta boys, but they haven't quite won me over with this new one. They still push themselves as "Epic Doom Metal", but I still don't think they sound all that Doomy. The songs are slow-ish yes, but there is more of a traditional Power Metal vibe happening rather than a Doom vibe. I guess I'll concede to the "epic" part. There are lots of biblical inspired lyrics, and some grand intentions, but it falls kind of flat for me this time out. The lyrics, while religious, are still rather ambiguous, so I'm not sure if they're just telling a story, or if they're now a bunch of raging bible-thumpers. Either way, the disc is not interesting enough to make me wanna put forth any effort to seek out that information. As a funny side note, my wife thought the cover art here was beyond cheesy, and reminded her of a bad Harlequin Romance cover.
RATING = 5 Doom-ish Power-Metal (Released 2005)

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