Review Summary: I've heard so much buzz going around my school about this people were saying things like " Impending Doom is the best Deathcore band ever!!!! " Are they really? I had to check it out.
Impending Doom is a Christian band from California that is on Facedown Records.
I was not aware that Impending Doom was a Christian band until after a bought the cd. When my friend told me all I had to say was ' Damn' . But I listened to the cd without bias (I promise)
There is not many things on the cd that make this band special, they aren't really deathcore either. With that said lets get on with the review.
Drumming- There isn't much variation of drumming on this album, a lot of blastbeats, pretty simple overall I don't really have any complaints though , thats typical with the type of music I listen to. Its also odd how they time it, like sometimes in the cd you will hear blastbeats in places that really don't sound right at all, it makes the experience kind of awkward.
Guitars- The guitarwork sadly isn't really much special either, there is a lot of chugging which isn't horrible but after to much of it, it can get quite annoying. Nothing really caught my eye in this department either. Sadly on the first song I was already getting extremely bored. Every once in a while he'll throw a pretty cool riff, but it doesn't happen that often. Every now and then he'll throw in a breakdown as well.
Bass- Didn't hear much of it. It is completely drowned out by the guitars. They don't really even need the bassist if they are just going to drown him out.
Vocals- The vocalists has a pretty good brutal/Intense style, if your not a fan of harsh vocals then you should definetely stay away from this. Another thing that seperates this from other Christian bands is that no clean vocals are used throughout the whole cd, which in this bands case in my opinion was a bad thing. Though the vocals are good they suffer from little to no variation, just brutal and deep throughout, they could really use another vocalist to do some shrieks or something that would of really added a lot to the the album for me. In other words if you're looking for variety you've come to the wrong place. His style does get annoying after a couple tracks, but for me this was the high point of the cd. Not your typical Christian band vocal approach, which is refreshing.
Overall opinion- This cd suffered a lot because of it all sounds the same. There are no songs that really stand out, which is sad because this band sounds like they could be alright with a little variation. The structure on nearly every song on the cd is exactly the same.
They should look into getting a vocalist with a bigger range, or just adding a vocalist that does a different style, some clean vocals wouldn't hurt. The guitar would be a lot better if they cut down on the chugging and maybe add a little bit of shredding here and there. The drumming could be a lot more complex. This is a band that just sticks with one style and never really explores their talent in my opinion, which is sad. What I reccomend is that you listen to one of their songs and like it so much you'd want to hear for over a half hour, then check this cd out, but otherwise stay away from it. Overall I thought this cd was very, very average maybe even worse, I'm being generous giving this a 2.
Pros
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Differs from most christian bands out today.
Vocals are good
Cons
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To much chugging
Not much variation in the vocal style
Sticks with one style, never explores
Bass is never really heard
