The Playlist of Life --- Trollheart's resurrected Journal

Trollheart · 10-10-2013, 05:18 AM

Formed in Varese, Italy in 1997, Doomsword were a band born out of a project called 1014AD, which was a historical/classical music project based on the theme of epic battles, which more or less metamorphosed into the band Doomsword. Heavily influenced by US band Warlord, the members of Doomsword assumed titles, with Deathmaster and Guardian Angel being the founders, and after some strife with the original Guardian Angel leaving the band his replacement took the name Guardian Angel II. Nice.

Doomsword have released five albums to date, but this one caught my eye, dealing as it seems to with ancient Celtic legend, so let's give it a spin.

My name will live on --- Doomsword --- 2007 (Dragonheart)

You know, our own Music Banter crash-course on metal puts Doomsword in as Doom Metal, and with a name like that you'd surely not be surprised to find that were the case, but just now I don't see it. As the album opens there's a far clearer, faster, more power-metal almost feel to the music as compared to the slow, plodding, often dragging element I have so far heard in DM. But whatever the sub-genre the music is good, with "Death of Ferdia" kicking off the album in fine style. Now I know my Irish legends, and Ferdia was the brother of Cuchullain, the Ulster hero who defended the North against the red queen Maedbh and who is immortalised in the Irish legend "Tain Bo Chulainge" (Cuchulainn is pronounced "koo-kull-in" and the book is pronounced "tawn bo kul-inga", for those who want to know). Ferdia fought for the South and faced his brother, being killed by him.

This track rocks along on a fine bouncing epic metal theme, not quite power metal but maybe like a slower Manowar, with some punching guitars and a fine vocal from this Deathmaster fellow. Cuchulainn's lament at the death of his brother is heartfelt: "Fate wanted us to live as brothers/And die as foes /Woe unto Éireann, /For the greatest of warriors has fallen!" Somehow Deathmaster manages to sound like he has an Irish accent, which is quite a feat given that he's Italian. He also delivers a nice little acoustic lament at the end of the song, attended by a fading chorus of sadness for the fallen warrior. A nice epic start to the album, and it continues with "Gergovia", in which Deathmaster again displays his prowess on the acoustic guitar.

Then with the sound of thunderous hooves approaching electric guitar cuts in as Sacred heart lets fly with a dark, heavy riff before kicking it up a notch as the song strays a little into Maiden territory, just a bit. Nice marching drumbeat from Wrathlord and some fine solos from Sacred Heart go together to create a really powerful song, this time apparently based around a recounting of a battle against the Roman legions by Vercingetorix, the Gaul warrior chieftain, in which hundreds of Romans were killed and the legion driven back. With a big Thin Lizzy style guitar opening, "Days of high adventure" delivers what it promises, a riproaring tune that rocks along like nobody's business, although it mixes metaphors of very different legends. All great fun.

And therein lies the fundamental dichotomy behind Doomsword. If they're to be considered Doom Metal, well there's very little doomy about them. There's no dark brooding, no depressing lyrics, no grinding guitars or slowly pounding drums; this is all about energy, perhaps not the energy of power metal but certainly a sort of energy. Maybe it's the epic nature of their music that pushes Doomsword into the Doom Metal category, but if so then it's a tenuous link at best. "Steel of my axe" would be at home on a Virgin Steele or Hammerfall album, and rockets along like no doom metal song I've heard, the likes of Sabbath's "Children of the grave" excepted. Probably the fastest song on the album so far --- what am I saying, probably? Definitely.

"Claidheamh solais" (claw-iv sull-is) slows it down again but the track still crunches along faster than any doom metal song I've heard up to now. Another powerful vocal allied to a twin guitar attack that again hits Lizzy grooves along the way, also reminding me of a slower "Only the good die young". More in the Metallica or even early Sabbath vein is "Thundercult" (let's not have any unfortunate misspellings now, shall we?)

, a much slower song and almost in the Doom Metal arena here, and perhaps weirdly comes across to me as the most boring and unadventurous, almost as if Doomsword think they should be doing a doom metal song, (yeah: I don't know if it's meant to be capatilised or not so I keep swinging from one to the other as the fancy takes me) rather than doing a song they like.

Big vocal chorus in very much a celtic mode to "Luni" and it's another slow grinder, though once the guitars get going it sort of hits into almost an Irish trad reel type of thing. Odd, but fun. Pretty clear from the lyric this is a song about Vikings --- "Let me avenge my fathers/ By holding this priest's head/ Go forth now my warriors/ And burn this town to the ground./ May I die in Odin's name/ The monks shall be tortured and slain." No great thought put into this song I'm afraid, again a bit doom Metal (hah!) by the numbers. Bit disappointing really. "Once glorious" is much better, starting off on a nice slow acoustic guitar run, which after a minute gets electrified as we power into what is in fact the longest song on the album, just short of eight and a half minutes.

It re-establishes the faster pace that characterised the first part of the album and pushes any Doom metal influences, as I understand them, to the background and out of sight as Doomsword go heads-down power/Viking metal on one of the better tracks on the album. "The great horn" (ooerr!) then closes the album in powerful and dramatic style, with an imagining of some sort of last great battle where all the warriors from history come back to fight, presumably against evil. Some great solos here and Deathmaster is on top form vocally. Very entertaining and a good closer, with some real old-school metal elements in it.

TRACKLISTING

1. Death of Ferdia
2. Gergovia
3. Days of high adventure
4. Steel of my axe
5. Claidheamh solais
6. Thundercult
7. Luni
8. Once glorious
9. The Great Horn

Having listened to this album through I would stick to my original contention that I do not consider this doom MeTaL (OK, I'll stop messing now!), if what I've heard up to now can be described as that sub-genre. Doomsword, to me, at least on this album, bear little if any resemblance to Solstice, Candlemass or even Sabbath. They're far more in the power, even prog metal bracket to these ears.

That said, this is a decent album and while I wouldn't go mad looking for the rest of their material, I wouldn't be averse to hearing more. I like their themes, and even if the idea of using character names is a little cliched and silly, they certainly deliver a good product here.

Read more here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doomsword

10-10-2013, 05:18 AM	#11 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,996	Formed in Varese, Italy in 1997, Doomsword were a band born out of a project called 1014AD, which was a historical/classical music project based on the theme of epic battles, which more or less metamorphosed into the band Doomsword. Heavily influenced by US band Warlord, the members of Doomsword assumed titles, with Deathmaster and Guardian Angel being the founders, and after some strife with the original Guardian Angel leaving the band his replacement took the name Guardian Angel II. Nice. Doomsword have released five albums to date, but this one caught my eye, dealing as it seems to with ancient Celtic legend, so let's give it a spin. My name will live on --- Doomsword --- 2007 (Dragonheart) You know, our own Music Banter crash-course on metal puts Doomsword in as Doom Metal, and with a name like that you'd surely not be surprised to find that were the case, but just now I don't see it. As the album opens there's a far clearer, faster, more power-metal almost feel to the music as compared to the slow, plodding, often dragging element I have so far heard in DM. But whatever the sub-genre the music is good, with "Death of Ferdia" kicking off the album in fine style. Now I know my Irish legends, and Ferdia was the brother of Cuchullain, the Ulster hero who defended the North against the red queen Maedbh and who is immortalised in the Irish legend "Tain Bo Chulainge" (Cuchulainn is pronounced "koo-kull-in" and the book is pronounced "tawn bo kul-inga", for those who want to know). Ferdia fought for the South and faced his brother, being killed by him. This track rocks along on a fine bouncing epic metal theme, not quite power metal but maybe like a slower Manowar, with some punching guitars and a fine vocal from this Deathmaster fellow. Cuchulainn's lament at the death of his brother is heartfelt: "Fate wanted us to live as brothers/And die as foes /Woe unto Éireann, /For the greatest of warriors has fallen!" Somehow Deathmaster manages to sound like he has an Irish accent, which is quite a feat given that he's Italian. He also delivers a nice little acoustic lament at the end of the song, attended by a fading chorus of sadness for the fallen warrior. A nice epic start to the album, and it continues with "Gergovia", in which Deathmaster again displays his prowess on the acoustic guitar. Then with the sound of thunderous hooves approaching electric guitar cuts in as Sacred heart lets fly with a dark, heavy riff before kicking it up a notch as the song strays a little into Maiden territory, just a bit. Nice marching drumbeat from Wrathlord and some fine solos from Sacred Heart go together to create a really powerful song, this time apparently based around a recounting of a battle against the Roman legions by Vercingetorix, the Gaul warrior chieftain, in which hundreds of Romans were killed and the legion driven back. With a big Thin Lizzy style guitar opening, "Days of high adventure" delivers what it promises, a riproaring tune that rocks along like nobody's business, although it mixes metaphors of very different legends. All great fun. And therein lies the fundamental dichotomy behind Doomsword. If they're to be considered Doom Metal, well there's very little doomy about them. There's no dark brooding, no depressing lyrics, no grinding guitars or slowly pounding drums; this is all about energy, perhaps not the energy of power metal but certainly a sort of energy. Maybe it's the epic nature of their music that pushes Doomsword into the Doom Metal category, but if so then it's a tenuous link at best. "Steel of my axe" would be at home on a Virgin Steele or Hammerfall album, and rockets along like no doom metal song I've heard, the likes of Sabbath's "Children of the grave" excepted. Probably the fastest song on the album so far --- what am I saying, probably? Definitely. "Claidheamh solais" (claw-iv sull-is) slows it down again but the track still crunches along faster than any doom metal song I've heard up to now. Another powerful vocal allied to a twin guitar attack that again hits Lizzy grooves along the way, also reminding me of a slower "Only the good die young". More in the Metallica or even early Sabbath vein is "Thundercult" (let's not have any unfortunate misspellings now, shall we?) , a much slower song and almost in the Doom Metal arena here, and perhaps weirdly comes across to me as the most boring and unadventurous, almost as if Doomsword think they should be doing a doom metal song, (yeah: I don't know if it's meant to be capatilised or not so I keep swinging from one to the other as the fancy takes me) rather than doing a song they like. Big vocal chorus in very much a celtic mode to "Luni" and it's another slow grinder, though once the guitars get going it sort of hits into almost an Irish trad reel type of thing. Odd, but fun. Pretty clear from the lyric this is a song about Vikings --- "Let me avenge my fathers/ By holding this priest's head/ Go forth now my warriors/ And burn this town to the ground./ May I die in Odin's name/ The monks shall be tortured and slain." No great thought put into this song I'm afraid, again a bit doom Metal (hah!) by the numbers. Bit disappointing really. "Once glorious" is much better, starting off on a nice slow acoustic guitar run, which after a minute gets electrified as we power into what is in fact the longest song on the album, just short of eight and a half minutes. It re-establishes the faster pace that characterised the first part of the album and pushes any Doom metal influences, as I understand them, to the background and out of sight as Doomsword go heads-down power/Viking metal on one of the better tracks on the album. "The great horn" (ooerr!) then closes the album in powerful and dramatic style, with an imagining of some sort of last great battle where all the warriors from history come back to fight, presumably against evil. Some great solos here and Deathmaster is on top form vocally. Very entertaining and a good closer, with some real old-school metal elements in it. TRACKLISTING 1. Death of Ferdia 2. Gergovia 3. Days of high adventure 4. Steel of my axe 5. Claidheamh solais 6. Thundercult 7. Luni 8. Once glorious 9. The Great Horn Having listened to this album through I would stick to my original contention that I do not consider this doom MeTaL (OK, I'll stop messing now!), if what I've heard up to now can be described as that sub-genre. Doomsword, to me, at least on this album, bear little if any resemblance to Solstice, Candlemass or even Sabbath. They're far more in the power, even prog metal bracket to these ears. That said, this is a decent album and while I wouldn't go mad looking for the rest of their material, I wouldn't be averse to hearing more. I like their themes, and even if the idea of using character names is a little cliched and silly, they certainly deliver a good product here. Read more here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doomsword __________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018 Last edited by Trollheart; 10-25-2013 at 12:41 PM.