Ok, there's doom metal and then there's slow and caliginous doooom metal played from the deepest recesses of the soul. Valarauk definitely belong to the latter case. What we have here with their first demo are four songs creeping on low-end and crawling guitars pacing on slow rhythms (with intermitting faster passages) throughout a course of 20 minutes taking us on tour through their darkened catacombs. Throughout the demo one can’t help but notice this vibe of pessimism and gloom oozing through the speakers. Vocals stand at a very satisfying level with your typical cookie-monster growls and the occasional shriek from time to time. Tempo is not exactly funereal but definitely slow enough. Production is raw and dirty but quite frankly I wouldn’t have it otherwise. Valarauk also make use of keyboard synths which interlace nicely with their overall sound. There are definitely times in the demo reminiscent of their Finnish funeral doom counterparts but there are faster passages as well which differentiate them from the funeral doom sub-genre. These become more conspicuous towards the end of the last track releasing all the built up momentum. Definitely this spew of wretched death/doom hits the spot as far as creating murky and grim atmospheres. Awaiting their debut…
(originally written for Tartarean Desire - 2/8/2005)
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