Review Summary: pizza doom
Italian doomsters Doomsword play a rather generic form of epic doom, but it’s nevertheless epic and it’s doom. With track titles such as ‘Sacred Metal’, ‘Warbringers’ and ‘Swords of Doom’, one can expect nothing but traditional doom elitery and, as is the case for Doomsword, pizza. As Italians are very well known for their pizza and not for their doom, it’s hard to believe that this album wasn’t accidentally made when the band members simply came together to make and then eat some delicious pizza pie.
As is the case with any pizza, the dough serves as the base, upon which all the other delicious elements of the creation are added;
Doomsword’s pizza has a dough made up of riffs, and whether they’re big riffs that slap you in the dick or melodic and somewhat intricate pieces of doughy goodness, guitarist Deathmaster plays his riffs just as well as he makes pizza. So good, in fact, that his name should be Pizzamaster. Not to mention his solos; while at times being semi-technical, they retain a sense of melody and never descend into anything short of captivating.
Adding a bit of tangy Mediterranean flair, vocalist Nightcomer is the olives to Doomsword’s pizza. His moderate range extends both up and down and it’s not easy to miss the delicious olive juices that squirt from his mouth when he sings. His tone registers very assonantly with the supporting music; although he occasionally overpowers the band behind him, his performance is pizzariffic. One can’t forget to mention his spoken word and general pompousness; it just adds to the album’s epic nature, the sort of metal album that can truly be enjoyed with some delicious pizza pie.
The rhythm section is made up of Guardian Angel on drums and Dark Omen on the bass. Guardian Angel brings a bit of spice to the kitchen with his drum performance; it’s obvious that this represents the pepperoni that he so often chews when he’s pounding the skins. The bass, well the bass is the anchovies. Nobody likes anchovies, and neither do Doomsword; hearing Dark Omen’s contribution is rather hard, but this is all understandable because bass is for non-elites anyway.
It’s hard not to feel that Doomsword’s delicious pizza pie is just another mediocre pizza; sure, it has dough, olives, pepperoni and (eugh) anchovies, but what really makes a pizza is what brings it all together – cheese. In the case of Doomsword’s recipe, it is the overarching melody that fuses together all the various elements of the band into something remarkably enjoyable and well put together. Just how cheese really makes every pizza, the melody on
Doomsword gives it that scintillating edge, allowing it to be an album that’s sought after, rather than one that you’ll take because everything else on the menu is sub-par. On that note, let this be a piece of advise to you: on any visit to the genre of pizza doom, let
Doomsword be your number one choice.
