Complicated Mind

"Complicated Mind" is among the more interesting progressive thrash albums out there. Doom had already shown promise on their debut album ("No More Pain"), but they took things several steps further here. This album could be compared to contemporary late 80s offerings by Voivod and Coroner, although none of these bands could be mistaken for one another. Like Voivod, Doom were a little closer aligned to punk than most thrash bands. They also had a bluesiness to their sound which resembled earlier rock traditions.

The band's musical ability is undeniable. Individually, the guitar solos are impressive and the bass skills are exemplary, wandering all over the songs in a way that was uncommon in metal back in 1988. These three guys sound like they have been rehearsing forever. This album has some of the best off-beat rhythms I've ever heard. The word 'mathy' could be used, though I have always found that adjective annoying. The band’s rhythmic angularity peaks on songs like "The Boys Dog" and "Poor Boy Condition'', where the rhythm sits astride the main beat and lurches it along in nauseating fashion. I wish more bands would take this approach to riffing and rhythm.

The band’s biggest weakness is the vocals. The snarling Cronos-esque monotone is a terrible fit for this kind of music, particularly when you consider that Voivod had solved this problem by this point in their career (adopting a stylised robotic approach that became their trademark). There are no notable vocal moments or hooks on the entire album, the vocals just gargle behind the interesting riffing. Perhaps these songs would be better as shorter instrumentals. This would also have helped edit the album down from its excessive length.

“Complicated Mind” is certainly worth hearing. It is mandatory listening for fans of progressive and avant-garde ‘outsider’ metal (e.g., Thought Industry, Demilich, Ved Buens Ende), and for fans of experimental punk (e.g., Die Kreuzen, This Heat). This is also a much better and more coherent album than the follow-up (“Incompetent…”), so it is probably the best place to begin exploring and understanding this band.

One risk when you are listening to Doom is that you will only pay attention to the late Koh Morota’s crazy, but always serviceable work on the fretless bass. Especially when he is put front and center in the mix like he was on the ‘Killing Fields’ EP. However, Doom is a power trio in the truest sense of the word. The magic of this band happens within their intricate, but always spontaneous interaction, something highly uncommon amongst thrash metal bands, but also a defining factor of the middle section in just about every track on their masterpiece ‘Complicated Mind’.

Structurally, most of Doom’s songs follow a similar pattern. They are bookended by tightly composed thrash riffs, only to turn into a contrasting instrumental section in the middle. The riffing has a futuristic feel, but manages to steer clear of the clinical nature of Voivod’s riffs, a band Doom is often compared to outside of their native Japan. And those middle sections really turn Doom into something special, as they could be anything from bluesy hardrock (the title track) to an atmospheric break (‘Bright Light’) or what can almost be considered a loud and distorted take on freejazz (‘Fall, Rise And…’).

While all of this may sound abstract, it is actually surprising how listenable ‘Complicated Mind’ is. Morota, singer/guitarist Takashi Fujita and drummer Jyoichi Hirokawa are not trying to be clever, they just play what came to their minds and apparently, their minds are wired a little differently than those of most people. The strangest track here is probably ‘Can’t Break My… Without You’ – verses: start-stop riffing with a melodic bass line, middle section: clean guitar break – but Hirokawa’s steady, almost danceable rhythms keep the song grounded and easily digestible. Doom’s secret appears to be to feel the music rather than to overthink it.

As a result, ‘Complicated Mind’ does not feel like college material. Banging your head to the pounding rhythms and dissonant chords of the title track is easy, while ‘Painted Face’, ‘Bright Light’ and ‘Slave Of Heaven’ are simply excellent, inventive metal tracks. The way Fujita’s straightforward riff and Morota’s busy parts are woven into each other on the latter is nothing short of art, as is the open, almost alt-rocky solo section. ‘The Boys Dog’ features Fujita narrating a story about what appears to sincerely be his childhood dog over some great riffing, which works out much better than it may sound like it would.

Everyone who enjoyed Voivod and Coroner should definitely give Doom a spin, though the more adventurous fans of the likes of Rush may actually find something of their liking here as well. Sure, Fujita’s vocals are quite monotonous, but they are convincing and strategically placed within the songs. While Doom would become even more progressive or even avant-garde in later years, ‘Complicated Mind’ features the trio at their very best, combining the blunt force of their early work with the thinking man’s intricacy of some of the following albums. And while some moments may feel downright odd initially, those with a similarly complicated mind will get it soon enough.

Recommended tracks: ‘Complicated Mind’, ‘Slave Of Heaven’, ‘Fall, Rise And…’

Originally written for my Kevy Metal weblog

Doom is one of those bands I hold dear to my heart. They started off in the 80s as an awesome thrash band with a really good bassist. But the band would show some unusual tendencies as early as Doom Days. Only a few months before the release of Complicated Mind, the Killing Field EP severely upped the ante and plunged the band deep into progressive territory with its unorthodox approach to thrash and bass virtuosity. But somehow, the Japanese madmen found a way to push the boundaries even further and create something truly unparalleled. Complicated Mind, as the name would imply, is a rather complicated affair with little regard for the concept of genre or standard conventions. Instead, they created one of the most bizarre and innovative progressive metal albums ever.

A few minutes into the album, one thing quickly becomes clear: Doom are absolute masters of rhythm. There are many mind-bending rhythms and unpredictable time signature changes all over this beast. The off-kilter pulse even rivals the likes of Watchtower at times in its utter madness. From a timbre standpoint, Doom also is highly unusual. As it is commonly noted, Fujita seems to channel Piggy at times with the use of weird dissonant chords and solos, but in Complicated Mind he goes a step further. Somehow, he finds a way to intersperse hard rocking and bluesy patterns among the jumbled mess of progressive oddities and balls-to-the-wall thrash. At times, you'll find yourself listening to a killer bluesy solo that would make the greats of the past proud and then find yourself jerked back into thrash. And the weird thing is that this all flows seamlessly feels natural.

The album itself varies widely in terms of the character of the songs. There are some songs, like Bright Light, that lean more on the thrash side with some bizarre touches. There are also some really good hard rocking numbers with progressive flourishes like Fall, Rise and... Then, there are other abstract monsters such as The Boys Dog that center around unique riffs that completely defy normal conventions. Weird spoken word sections also pop up from time to time and work quite well in the backdrop of Fujita's dissonance. Additionally, there are moments of absolute melodic beauty with harmonizing basslines and stunning guitar leads. One special mention goes Poor Boy Condition which is a crazy instrumental track that features some of the most fun rhythmic patterns I've ever heard. In the middle, the band completely lose their mind with twisty bass lines, spastic drumming, and ominous chords.

All of the band members are about as good as it gets, but Doom's biggest asset is without a doubt Morota on fretless bass. If there is a metal bassist hall of fame out there, this guy undoubtedly needs to be near the very top. In contrast to most fretless players in metal, who seem more interested in making wanking noises as opposed to playing appropriate counterpoint, Morota crushed the competition with his usage of unorthodox embellishments and complicated but fitting basslines. Behind nearly every riff, there is well-written complimentary bass that adds so much more to the experience. He was truly one of the most unique and innovative bassists in metal.

Unsurprisingly, this album is completely laden with Fujita's funny Engrish which adds a little goofiness to the overall character. The lyrics are pretty amusing to read with a fairly poor grasp on the language, but it just adds to the fun for me. Out of Doom's excellent discography, I'd have to say Complicated Mind is my personal favorite work. It has that perfect balance of thrash, prog, hard/blues rock, and all of the other elements that make this band so great. It's forward thinking and completely unique. It's extremely satisfying from a technical standpoint, and the album's songwriting is stunning. Not only would I consider this to be Doom's best work, this easily one of my favorite albums of all time. It simply has all the elements I love in music.

Originally written for my blog.

Japan is a weird place (just look at their cinema, for crying out loud!), so there was no way the metal field was going to be spared when it comes to eclecticism and weirdness. For one thing, many of the speed/thrash metal acts from there (Aion, Gargoyle, Jurassic Jade, to name just a few) were disguised under a heavy make-up looking like Motley Crue or Kiss wannabes thus strongly misleading the metal fan as to what to expect from their repertoire. The “psychos” under scrutiny here, Doom, were no exception to the apparent rule; they may have even started it all, and they can also be rightfully placed alongside Loudness and Earthshaker as one of the originators of the whole metal scene in the Land of the Rising Psychos… sorry, Sun. They were certainly the first ones to answer to the more brutal demands of the mid-80’s along with the blackened speed/thrashers Zadkiel (both formations shared members at the beginning) becoming the first full-fledged thrash metal act on Japanese ground. By no means were they oriented towards the doom metal sector having in mind the name they had chosen (who was anyway: check out the other Doom’s, the UK grindcore pioneers…).

No traces of any mental aberrations on their debut EP “Go Mad Yourself” (1986) which served dark foreboding thrash with “doomy” overtones recalling both Venom and Celtic Frost, excellent melodic leads, and some impressive virtuous bass work. Still, it showed the guys more than well equipped to make a more lasting impression on the scene. One year later things around the world took a fairly offbeat turn with Voivod releasing the ground-breaking “Killing Technology”, but the Japanese’s full-length debut “No More Pain” was still a pretty straight-forward affair with just glimpses (check out the twisted headbangers “Kick it Out!” and “Death to Wimp”, or the mechanical oddity “Body no Body”) of their distorted genius which was going to come to the forefront very soon, recalling “Rrroooaaarrr” with its clumsy proto-experimentalism rather than the aforementioned magnum opus.

There is a very small probability that both bands (Doom & Voivod, that is) were aware of each other’s existence, since while the Japanese fanbase was devouring voraciously everything labelled “metal” from the West during the 80’s (and beyond), their own genre purveyors sadly gained very little exposure outside their homeland excluding Loudness. This is the reason why Doom never get mentioned alongside other acts who rewrote the rules of thrash, like Voivod, Watchtower, Mekong Delta, etc. Another reason could be the fact that they were more often venturing outside the boundaries of the genre, earlier than Voivod themselves even. Comes 1988 and another EP, “The Killing Field”, is released which is already a fairly avant-garde effort with quirky rhythms, illogical time-signatures, and too many non-thrash related effects which distances it from the fairly more aggressive preceding album.

However, just a few months later the prolific “doomsters” are here again with a 2nd full-length this time, the album reviewed here. When using the descriptions "innovative", "original", and "avantgarde", "Complicated Mind" walks all the way hand in hand with "Killing Technology". The term "psychedelic" used for the Voivod album is substituted by "psychotic" for the album here, "spacey" is substituted by "abstract", and "hallucinogenic" is substituted by "bizarre". Do you start getting the picture? I don't think so... You will, once the opener “Bright Light” reaches your ears, a surreal semi-headbanger second to none sounding like an utterly spaced out version of the NWOBHM practitioners (think Satan, Angel Witch, and Holocaust), also adding a more abstract proto-industrial “sting” ala late-80’s/early-90’s Killing Joke. As expected, full-blooded thrash is out of the question, and the guys by no means pretend to be the biggest defenders of the thrash metal faith. “Can’t Break My… Without You” is jumpy funkisms with visionary groovy sections inserted as well, heard for arguably the first time before the 90’s mania.

Thrash fans, please stay put since the title-track is dramatic avant-garde thrashing with an excellent bass bottom and utterly surreal rhythms, both an unnerving and a thoroughly listenable composition. It draws the template to be followed by the remaining material “Fall, Rise, and…” creeping forward in a more careless disheveled fashion with weird passages stitched together not very logically, but quite intriguingly. If this number doesn’t finish you off, then your “nervous breakdown” is guaranteed on “Nervous Break Down” which will shatter your senses with robotic mechanical guitars that will pierce your brain having this surgical feel typical for future industrial acts like Treponem Pal and Malhavoc. You have to understand that orthodox linear thrash won’t be the order of the day here if we exclude a few moments from the chaotic “violator” “Painted Face” which leaves to make room for the finest cuts on the album:

“Poor Boy Condition”, the definitive abstracter, not equaled yet even after the influx of the industrial and alternative era during the 90’s; officiant recitals (no singing here) are accompanied by avant-garde semi-technical thrashing which is a marvel to listen to among the more sterile industrial noises applied here and there; pure bliss. “Slave of Heaven” is a sure leftover from “Killing Technology”, a song somehow stolen from their Canadian colleagues, progressive psychedelia at its finest also reminiscent of another very individualistic strange effort from around the same time, the obscures Transilience’s “Mouthful of Buildings” (1989). The closing “The Boy’s Dog” is a virtual continuation of the previous “boy”, “Poor Boy Condition”: more technical minimalistic, spiral-like riffs accompany oblivious recitals quite similar to the ones Dave Mustaine used on “Rust in Peace… Polaris”; oh, and there is a nice lead section of the both screamy and melodic variety to bring some colour to the sterile environment…

The scene was moving towards more technical, progressive territories in the late-1980’s, but at that time this album sounded completely insane, even in the company of other “eye openers” like “Dimension Hatross” (Voivod again), Mekong Delta’s “The Music of Erich Zann”, Target’s “Master Project Genesis”, and Living Death’s “World Neurosis”. The diehard thrashers must have dismissed it after the 2nd track, but those with an ear for the offbeat and the eclectic would have stayed with it till the end and may have found their favourite album here even. Its discordant, illogical at times, nature requires several listens before one starts to fully grasp the non-conventional approach to the genre although this is not strictly thrash all the way, like it was the case with the aforementioned Voivod opus, and other advanced recordings like Watchtower’s “Control & Resistance” and Toxik’s “Think This”.

Those who appreciated the otherworldly delivery on the album must have waited for the follow-up with sleepless nights aplenty behind them, but “Incompetent” which appeared a year later was a harder to digest “cacophony” with numerous gimmicks and influences piled on top of each other the resultant “cocktail” bordering on the unlistenable at times. Still, there are quite a few stylish touches present some of them predictably not belonging to the thrash metal arsenal. This is eclectism brought to its extreme, and even the band’s diehard fans must have been pulled back by its not very accessible character. However, like with every good act, the “doomsters” had other tricks inside their bag, and “Human Noise” (1991) is a fine clever avant-garde progressive thrash piece quite similar to the album reviewed here full of non-standard decisions, quirky rhythms, and the obligatory, more or less heralded, deviations from the genre.

A piece of advice to the regular thrash metal fan is not to bother too much with the following effort, “Doom IV- Illegal Soul” (1992), which actually marks the second period of the band's development, when they turned towards industrial progressive rock/metal with just a few nostalgic looks back at their thrash heritage, another statement of non-thrash intent being their swansong “Where Your Life Lies?!”(1999). The guys are no more, but their weird exotic shadow can be distantly detected in the works of some Japanese outfits, like the veterans Gargoyle who started their career a few years after Doom, but are still extant producing strange blends of hard-hitting speed/thrash and much more melodic lyrical passages; their albums being hit-and-miss affairs with more or less appealing offbeat ingredients thrown in at times. A more consistent and better formation are the other stalwarts from the 80’s, Jurassic Jade, who woke up for technical, progressive music relatively late, but the several full-lengths and EP’s released since the start of the new millennium are by all means worth checking out with their more original, stylish take on the genre.

Some acts from other parts of the world have followed more faithfully on the path started by these “psychos”, and have managed to decipher the formulas on which the Japanese based their repertoire: Cryptic Slaughter’s excellent “Speak Your Piece” comes to mind although its abrasive hardcore-ish edge at times betrays its more immediate origins. Thought Industry’s “Songs for Insects” was a revelation in 1992, a truly original take on thrash, but they moved towards more melodic alternative rock/metal earlier than Doom and this remained their only work related to the genre. Likewise, the Italians Braindamage released a striking debut (“Signal de Revolta”, 1993) of clever odd thrashisms with a more modern industrial flavour, before they turned to mellower industrial rock/metal fields on subsequent efforts.

And Doom… well, Doom are having an indefinite break from music, probably resting in an asylum somewhere in the Japanese mountains, waiting patiently for the right time to escape from there and shock us with another “psychological” testing of our fragile nerves and “complicated minds”…