Aeternum Vale

Doom:VS became famous already in its early years. Johan maybe has borrowed some fame from Draconian, but the result is more than satisfying: in this project he created powerful death doom metal with elements of funeral doom as well. Aeternum Vale is perfect debut, which opened many doors to him in the Doom industry.

Aeternum Vale is 50 minutes of crushing, yet emotional death doom metal, which almost has no similarities with other bands. Most of the modern artists in this genre try to create something that already was created by My Dying Bride and Anathema years ago. But here Johan has taken new path, which do not go near neither Mourning Beloveth and, surprisingly, nor Draconian.

Well, the cover art of the album is nothing special, just typical grey-white photo with semi-unrecognizable silhouettes there, but we mustn't judge book by its cover. The atmosphere of the album is just amazing. Johan doesn't often use keyboards, so the whole atmosphere is created mostly by the guitars. It's riffs are generally slow and moderate and sometimes moves to fast tempo (for example: track 'the crawling insects'). Here you will be able to hear two different types of vocals, strong grawl, which is the main and the lead type of vocals, and 'hellish' clean vocals, which gives songs their diversity and light parts. And also you will be able to hear great orchestral parts in the songs The Faded Earth and Aeternus.

Johan has some kind if tradition to make the last tracks of the albums long and over-emotional. In 'over-emotional' I don't mean that there are more emotions than needed, there are just more emotions than in other songs. The duo of grawl and clean vocal along with the groove, slow riffs make amazing atmosphere, which gives the song the ability to 'sum up' whole album, which leaves the listener excited and wanting to hear more.

To conclude, Aeternum Vale is in the 'must-know list'. Every fan of doom metal will appreciate the effort Johan has put here and some of them may find germ for their collection too.

Doom:vs... possibly one of the most depressing, but uplifting bands I've ever heard. Each song on this album is well written and has it's own unique sound. I have not yet come across a band like this before and I cannot put into words how much this band has influenced me.

Every song on this album is very well planned out from the background choir (clearly a keyboard but still good none-the-less) to the solos that add such a feeling of utter depression. The songs are soothing and give you a peaceful calm feeling at times but can also bring utter chaos. This album was very enjoyable in all aspects, you can put this album on repeat forever and it will still blow your socks off everytime you hear it.

The main song for me that sticks out is Oblivion Upon Us; when he does his spoken intro then the song just pounds in and then there's the lead in it... This album is probably one of the most impressive funeral doom releases I've ever heard, but that's my opinnion. I highly recommend going out and buying this album as soon as you can, it's worth the money you spend.

Songs that stick out: Oblivion Upon Us, Crawling Insects and Empire of the Fallen.

Johan Ericson’s brain child, DOOM:VS, is in my opinion one of the most promising new wave Doom Metal acts. This one-man project encompasses various sullen musical styles, ranging from gloomy Gothic/Doom melodies of Draconian (Swe), slow-paced Funeral Doom bands like Shape of Despair, to a bit uptempo Doom/Death bands, such as Mourning Beloveth. Aeternum Vale (meaning "farewell forever") could easily be labeled as one of the best Doom Metal releases of 2006. In a little over 50 minutes we plunge into bleak vistas of despair, coupled with beautiful yet haunting melodies. Production is very solid and polished, we can hear that Johan really did take the time for this album. Despite its gloomy genre, the music surprisingly never gets boring. This is achieved through evocative guitar solos, which conjure up astonishing soundscapes. The very high quality of vocals, alternating between clean lamentations and deep guttural growls, help to build up the atmosphere. Funeral Doom drumming tends to be quite tedious and monotonous, on Aeternum Vale, however, this never happens - drums offer progressive variations and slightly quicker tempos. On The Crawling Insects track we can even hear some blast beats. There are no deviations of quality throughout the entire album and some songs are almost catchy, perhaps a little too catchy. Because of its refreshing variety the album can be easily recommended to newbies in heavier Doom Metal subgenres.