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Altar Of Betelgeuze - Darkness Sustains The Silence



7.6 | 40 votes |
Release date: 1 January 2014
Style: Death doom metal, Stoner metal

Owners:

30 have it
13 want it


01. Epitaph
02. A World Without End
03. The Spiral Of Decay
04. Steamroller
05. Smoldering Clouds Above Orion
06. The Approaching Storm
07. Out Of Control
08. Darkness Sustains The Silence

Additional info
Songs 2, 3, 5, 7 and 8 written by Matias Nastolin. Tracks 1, 4 and 6 written by Olli "Otu" Suurmunne. All lyrics by Matias Nastolin.

Guitars, vocals and bass were recorded between March - May 2013 at a home studio. Drums were recorded and engineered by Ari Salonen at MD-studio, Helsinki (Finland) in July 2013.

Produced by Altar Of Betelgeuze. Mixing by Matias Nastolin and Juho Kareoja between July - August 2013. Assistant mixing by Olli "Otu" Suurmunne. Mastering by Javier Félez at Moontower Studios, Terrassa (Spain) in September 2013.

Artwork & Layout by César Valladares. Logo by Ciprian Frîncu.

Staff review by
BitterCOld
Rating:
7.8
Hailing from Finland, Finland, Finland, that country where I want to be? your metal so melodic, your landscape unthawed, we have Altar of Betelgeuze. AOB are one of those pentagram shaped pegs that refuse to be easily pounded into a round hole.

On their promo pic, the fiendish Finns are sporting gear dropping Watain, Sleep, Death, and King Diamond. At various points in this release they tread metal ground clearly influenced by each of these artists, though fortunately they leave the falsetto to King Diamond & He Man*

Read more ››
published 28.01.2014 | Comments (13)

Start your year off on a good note with the debut from this interesting Finnish group. Harsh and death doom-ish at points, but also has a surprisingly groovy edge to it, with clean vocals that sound as if they could easily fit in your typical desert stoner band.

Check out a few tracks on their Bandcamp, "The Spiral Of Decay" in particular.

Apothecary's picks | More picks ››

Found in 16 lists
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Comments

Comments: 11   [ 1 ignored ]   Visited by: 262 users
16.12.2013 - 18:21
Nefarious
Doom Knight
From the three songs i've heard so far, I can confidently say I expect this to be one of my favourite releases from 2014.
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"FUCK!!! You're the fucking 5th person asking me in an interview about the woman in the bathtub?The problem is that I AM the fucking person in the bathtub, and I AM a fucking MAN, for fuck's sake! I hate you all!" ~ Herr Morbid
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16.12.2013 - 18:23
Nefarious
Doom Knight
Here's the links to those songs in case anyone is interested:

Bandcamp

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"FUCK!!! You're the fucking 5th person asking me in an interview about the woman in the bathtub?The problem is that I AM the fucking person in the bathtub, and I AM a fucking MAN, for fuck's sake! I hate you all!" ~ Herr Morbid
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16.12.2013 - 18:28
Marcel Hubregtse
Grumpy Old Fuck
I immensely enjoyed their demo. So am really looking forward to this album.
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Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal

Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight
Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.)
05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996

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01.01.2014 - 05:45
Zap
Guest
That description in the staff pick sounds very interesting, will definitely check it out asap.
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01.01.2014 - 10:26
Nefarious
Doom Knight
I was gonna staff pick this today too but Apothecary beat me too it This really is a fantastic album throughout with a real nice mix of heavy & melodic while always maintaining an infectious groove. Thier 2012 EP was already great but this is a real step up. "The Spiral Of Decay" is the standout track for me too although I enjoyed every song off this.
----
"FUCK!!! You're the fucking 5th person asking me in an interview about the woman in the bathtub?The problem is that I AM the fucking person in the bathtub, and I AM a fucking MAN, for fuck's sake! I hate you all!" ~ Herr Morbid
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01.01.2014 - 23:35
Rating: 9
Chobo_jokeR

Wow? when I turned on "The Spiral of Decay" I couldn't have asked for a groovier sound. January 1 and we're already treated to a gem like this.
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03.01.2014 - 09:34
NorthernDickhead

Good staff.......groovy,heavy,that's The idea of Stoner. I like vocals too.
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05.01.2014 - 03:45
theembryo

"Smoldering Clouds Above Orion" and "The Approaching Storm" seem to come from the 'At The Shrine Of Light', yes? I enjoy the hell out of the release. As usual, very well done by Apothecary and MS Staff!

A Good New Year to All!!!
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17.01.2014 - 03:59
Rating: 9
Chobo_jokeR

Nice to have some flavour sprinkled into my death doom! Awesome album. Glad I was finally able to listen to it.
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20.01.2014 - 06:07
Rating: 7
Diverge

The songs are decent, but I find the mix tends to go from soft to loud in a really annoying way. I don't know if it's just the download, but this has significantly dampened my listening experience and as a result, I'm probably not even going to give this an 8.
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01.03.2014 - 18:37
Rating: 7
Erik M.

Good album. But I'm not fond of the clean vocals at all. And I agree with Diverge about the heavier and "soft" parts. It's rather annoying.
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