The Shadow Over Atlantis

Doom/death is a dangerous genre to pursue. If your band blows it, there's really nothing interesting about your music. When power metal or death metal is poorly executed, there will always be a catchy chorus or a headbanging riff that works, but when doom/death fails, it's just painfully boring, and nothing more. Testing the waters of the genre are newcomers The Wounded Kings, and thankfully, they aren't subjecting their listeners to an onslaught of boredom as so many bands do. They don't hit the apex found by Ahab or Esoteric, but they craft grievous, sometimes stirring, and sometimes even catchy melodies with their music.

Their second album, The Shadow Over Atlantis is a collection of often very long, drawn out gloomy melodies, reminiscent of early My Dying Bride or even Isole. This isn't for the faint of heart. If you're going through tough times, have lost a loved one, or are pining over an unattainable crush, then steer clear of this record. It'll make you slit your wrist upwards. This is the type of art that comes naturally from years of misery. While it usually does sound good, the quality of the music takes a backseat to the artist's individual catharsis, and that exactly what the pained, doomy melodies of The Wounded Kings provide. Despite influences ranging from black, thrash, and even tinges of middle-eastern, the predominant theme here is bleakness and misery, and that's exactly what the band intends to convey.

If you think that such themes would get old, then you're seriously listening to the wrong genre. It's doom/death. It's gonna be melancholic, and that's the way it should be. The Wounded Kings have the themes down pat, and they show room for growth too.