Underground Sounds: Alseyoung – Who Passes Through Fire

Label: Self released
Band: Alseyoung
Origin: United States

There’s a remarkable amount of good doom metal out there these days. Doom as a genre has not really changed much over the years, which is why it is often overlooked. The quality of doom metal is not necessarily in experimenting. The strength of doom is in its way of evoking feelings with their listeners. Alseyoung clearly got that point on their demo/debut ‘Who Passes Through Fire’.

So who was Alse Young? Alse Young is the first recorded instance of execution for witchcraft in the American colonies. We know little about the woman. Her husband accused her of witchcraft. He provided ample proof it seems. So Alse Young was soon convicted and executed for this crime. A faith that befell many back in the day. Like many cases the surrounding context made the accusations highly dubious and probably money was the main reason for this accusation. You kow how things like this go. The name sounds great for a band though.

The one man band has collected all the demo recordings into one collection, which creates pretty much an album. There’s a bit of variation in the sound, but the record sounds pretty coherent. We have the horror samples as well to add to the vibe of this ‘Puritan Witchcraft Doom’ album. From classic St. Vitus riffs on ‘The Shadow of a Woman’, with the big, colossal riffs, we move to a more sinister sound on ‘Thy Blood’. On this track we get creeping vocals and tremolo guitar play to create a more black metal ambiance. Another dimension of the sound is on ‘Blood, Stone, Soil, Fire’, which approaches the more raw, distorted doom of Warhorse.

Alseyoung is not the most tight sounding band, so the classic doom riffs are only now and then a part of the sound. The creeping, onholy sounds of the vocals in concert with the riffs gives a cavernous, underground feeling to the music. The recording quality varies here and there. This is only logical, since it is a collection of demo recordings.  What I find that a lot of the material lacks is a  serieus bit of storytelling. I mean that in the sense of the song, staying relatively constant and not really looking for the dramatic and epic moments that define doom metal. It’s all about the progression of the song with Alseyoung. A bit more dramatic climax wouldn’t hurt.

I think we might hear more from this Massachusets act in the future.

 

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