Doomfall
DOOMFALL RELEASE SELF-TITLED DEBUT ALBUM
Melodic doom metal outfit Doomfall recently released their self-titled debut LP. From Big D, Dallas, Texas, this band has it going on, producing thick viscous doom layered with melodic surface colors.
Doomfall | Photo: Garrett Smith
The band is made up of Katie Puryear (vocals, doom queen), Charlie Debolt (drums), Drew Kee (bass), Korbin Chase (guitar), and Hayden Kirkby (guitar, vocals).
Released February 21, the album was recorded at Civil Audio with Michael Briggs, who also handled engineering and mastering. Photography by Garrett Smith, and painting by Hayden Kirkby.
Doomfall stands out because of their dual vocals, Puryear’s clean, haunting tones juxtaposed against Kirkby’s cruel rasping voice, giving the lyrics tasty dichotomy, and thus avoiding the pitfall of monotony.
Puryear, who used to play acoustic music and was in a funk band in college, told Dallas Observer’s David Fletcher, “There’s not a lot of softer voices with that type of music. It’s really been a challenge, so I just did what I wanted to do. Someone comes up with a riff, they play the riff, someone else joins in and I think about things that are going on in my life and the song that they’re writing makes me feel.”
The guitars go gooey, adding dense flavors, as Kirkby rasps out phobic howls of distress.
With four-tracks, the album commences with “Why Fear the Godless,” opening on a clanging high-hat flowing into dark, heavy guitars surging with black energy. As the song takes on form, a searing guitar injects tight, glossy licks, as Debolt’s Thor-like drumming pummels the dynasphere with crunching strokes. When Puryear’s enter, the tune assumes melancholic lingering tones, infusing the lyrics with tangible gloomy timbres.
An echoing breakdown leads to rumbling drums topped by dirty growling guitars, upon which Puryear’s ambushing voice glides like towering tendrils, as Kirkby delivers snarling rasping tones, filling the music with dreadful sonic contortions.
“Birthrite” travels on gently glistening guitars, drifting with hoary colors, giving the tune a prog-rock feel. Puryear’s pure, crystalline voice arrives, imbuing the tune with misty luminous colors and a feeling of urgent regret. The guitars go gooey, adding dense flavors, as Kirkby rasps out phobic howls of distress.
“Agnes” starts off with Tool-like murky guitars and quickly moves to dyad layers of growling and black blistering colors. When Puryear’s high voice harmonizes with Kirkby’s glowering tones, the effect is mesmerizing.
“Shepherd” opens on deep groaning almost industrial tone fused with bluesy tints. There’s a wickedly rolling undulation to the harmonics, which gather impetus along with edgier tones. Puryear’s voice finances cashmere timbres rife with latent malevolence as if inviting listeners into her shadowy lair. The guitars shoulder dense chugging muscle, infusing the music with a mother-of-all-machines gravity.
Doomfall delivers turbulent colors, thrumming rhythms, dread-filled sepulchral immensity, all capped by yummy twofold vocal coloration. This band should be signed, sealed, and delivered.
