Never has a band been more accurately named. I could feel all the remaining seconds of my life tumble into oblivion as this tedious blob of boring doom metal numbed my very soul. This is one of the dullest records I have heard in a long, long time.
Let’s write 20-minute long songs just because we can. Not that they’d actually be better in less than half the time, we’ve got to show we are DOOOOOOOM metal. Stuff and nonsense! It’s getting so that every time I see a song longer than 10 minutes, I cringe internally, because I know what’s on the way. What’s most disappointing about this Aussie bunch is that the members are in strong bands like TEMPLE NIGHTSIDE, NAZXUL and HORRISONOUS.
The description says THE SLOW DEATH play “death/doom metal”. So I was expecting something really crushing and ponderous. Instead, almost half of the laborious running time of tracks like ‘Tyranny’ and ‘Pestilence’ are given over to lightweight, Gothy tones with an uninspired female vocalist crooning away. This is the softer side of MY DYING BRIDE and PARADISE LOST. Yes, there are death grunts, too, and they are as generic as they come.
There is a part in ‘Famine’ where some of the promise of the band comes through, with thick, colossal riffing and a powerful chugging part. But then it’s back to Gothy stuff and melodies that sounds like a copy of a copy of a copy of the Yorkshire Three. If you like a lot of weepy twin guitar action, you can add extra points. I found this just interminable to listen to…it needed a dose of skull-crushing intensity to wake me up.
If you like really overlong, meandering Gothic doom, Siege is for you. Not for me or many reading this, though, I reckon.
Review By: Dr. Abner Mality
THE SLOW DEATH
Siege
Transcending Obscurity
1.5 / 6