Sorrowful guitar work meets energetic rhythm section - A review of Rotting Kingdom's A Deeper Shade of Sorrow

Rotting Kingdom is an American quintet that combines doom metal soundscapes with death metal vocals. On its first full length effort A Deeper Shade of Sorrow, the five young men focus on gloomy, mysterious and oppressive atmosphere from start to finish. The diversified song writing from ninety-four second long instrumental interludes over compact four-minute tracks to sluggish epics close to the nine-minute mark keeps the release entertaining from start to finish. The bleak cover artwork exemplifies the soundscapes on the six songs with a running time of thirty-eight minutes perfectly.

The sinister guitar work between gripping riffs and fragile melodies stands out in particular throughout the album while the thunderous rhythm section particularly shines in the more elaborate and almost progressive tunes.

The vocal performances sound particularly emotional in the opening epic ''Sculpted into Life by the Hand of Death'' that can be described as the album's strongest tune. The lethargic album closer and title track ''A Deeper Shade of Sorrow'' convinces in its second half in particular and ends the output on a strong note. Some tracks in the middle section however only include generic growls without much diversity, emotions or ideas.

The production of the album sounds great. Every instrument is perfectly audible. The strong guitar work truly shines here. The bass guitar is the grimly pumping backbone of the album. The drums and percussion add lots of dynamics to the mastering. Only the vocals are perhaps a little bit too loud in the mix and bury the outstanding instrumental work at times.

In the end, Rotting Kingdom's A Deeper Shade of Sorrow is highly recommended to fans of gloomy doom and death metal. It's a truly promising first strike for a new band that genre fans should keep their eyes on. The album can be considered an early genre highlight of the year.

Final rating: 79%