Impending Doom – The Sin and Doom; Vol. II

Published by PecksMetalPicks on July 14, 2018

Impending Doom just released their sixth album ‘The Sin and Doom; Vol. II’. It’s my favorite release from them since their 2009 album ‘The Serpent Servant’ and it’s a solid comeback considering it’s the first thing they’ve released in five years.

There are a couple reasons I wanted to review this album. The first is that heavy Christian music is basically dead. Sure, there are plenty of small bands that still pop up and a couple of the big ones have vague references to their beliefs, but Impending Doom is one of the few that’s still straightforward about it. After For Today decided to call it quits there has been a massive gap in the Christian metal scene, especially compared to how strong it was in the late 2000’s, and I think Impending Doom should get some credit for partially filling that hole.

Another reason I wanted to review this is because a lot of people loved Fit For A King’s recent single “Tower of Pain”, but may not have realized that a lot of it sounds exactly how Impending Doom has sounded since at least 2012. I just want to point out that Impending Doom is essentially the heavier version of FFAK.

It’s interesting though because Impending Doom is still in the 2014 mode of deathcore which was getting closer and closer to metalcore (still has heavy breakdowns but the lyrics became a lot easier to understand). I almost don’t want to call them deathcore because in a lot of ways they’re essentially an extra heavy metalcore band and not very similar to 2018 deathcore bands like Angelmaker, Oceano, Shadow of Intent, etc in terms or heaviness and technicality. It’s not bad by any means, and I’m 95% sure this is the style Chelsea Grin’s new album will fall into, it’s just not really deathcore anymore.

The plus side to this album being less technical is that it feels groovier. The monotone vocal style kind of reminds me of Meshuggah and they do a good job of pairing the vocals with the grooves to build up sections before the breakdowns.

Overall this is a solid album by a band that I’m glad is still around. I remember the first time I heard ‘Nailed. Dead. Risen.’ and Impending Doom has had a place in my playlist ever since.