What a nice surprise just before the new year, a new Doom album. It has been a while since their last full length album “World Of Shit“. From the very opening song ‘Stripped, Whipped & Crucified‘ the anger and power still remain. This song leads us with a slow heavy riff to the second song ‘Prey For Our Souls‘, where they have the infamous punk poet Andy T on main vocals. For those not familiar with Andy, he had a great EP ‘Weary Of The Flesh‘ released on Crass Records. On this he sounds like an even darker, more politicized John Cooper Clarke. There is a real anarcho-punk type feel to some of the tracks on this. The title track, ‘Corrupt Fucking System,’ is pure political punk with that real powerful Conflict feel about it.
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By anarcho-punk, I don’t mean this new album is some sort of departure from Doom’s mainstay. It is more of an undercurrent – the music still has that dirty crust sound that ‘War Crimes‘ had. Except maybe the band are even more weary of our fake resplendent world. The final song ‘Cults of Human Sacrifice‘ has spoken criticisms from atheist neuroscientist Sam Harris, which is the quintessential way to close this album. As he philosophizes the album’s mood perfectly.
Doom certainly haven’t vanquished their political ideologies and still hold true their DIY punk approach to everything they do, which makes the music a lot more sincere rather than going through the motions. The album is released by themselves on their label Black Cloud and was recorded, mixed & mastered by Bri Doom himself at Studio 1in12. The production is top notch too, as Bri has produced bands like Discharge, Deviated Instinct, Last Legion Alive, Alehammer, Bulletridden and many more. And back to DIY ethics again, the studio is part of the 1in12 club, an anarchist collective run venue/cafe/space in Bradford, which members of the band have been involved with for many years. To quote the title track:
“Together we are powerful. We must strive for a better world, a world without these corrupt fucking systems. If we do nothing we are doomed for eternity“.
In our world of glossy photoshopped images, slogans and doublespeak which slap you from every bus, billboard and screen, it is refreshing how the colors of the real world seem very alive when listening to something with a pungent vision of poverty, religious disease and global consumption. Monolithic and powerful, yet unembellished. This is another great album from Doom.
Josh Clizbe
January 6, 2014 at 6:08 pm
…and they say punk is dead.
Danisthebastard
January 6, 2014 at 9:27 am
Dooooooooooooooom.