Album Review: Majestic Downfall - Aorta
Reviewed by Richard Oliver
Aorta is album number six from death/doom band Majestic Downfall. The band was formed as a solo project by vocalist and bassist Jacobo Córdova in 2006 based in Dallas, Texas. After a handful of albums the solo project became a four piece band and are now based in Querétaro, Mexico with Aorta being the sixth album from the band.
Despite being only four songs in duration, Aorta is a hefty album. The four songs are all mammoth sized with the shortest being around 13 minutes and the longest at nearly 20 minutes with a full album duration of nearly 69 minutes. The risk with such long and hefty songs is that the content isn’t interesting enough to justify the duration but thankfully Majestic Downfall manages to keep things fairly interesting throughout. They play a nice death/doom metal sound that is equally melodic and punishing. As to be expected with this style of music the mood is very downbeat and bleak with crushing death/doom riffs mixed with the anguished vocals of Jacobo Córdova who has a vocal style that sits somewhere between guttural death metal growls and an agonized scream. The use of melody throughout is well placed with some brilliant desolate and melancholic melodies in songs such as A Dying Crown and Become Eternal. The band have some well placed quieter moments meaning that when the heaviness kicks back in it is to devastating effect.
South America seems to have a very healthy death/doom metal scene and Majestic Downfall will definitely impress fans of bleak and melancholic metal with Aorta. Despite four huge monolithic songs, the band have managed to craft some impressive compositions with plenty of depth and progression to them. There are plenty of bands that play this melancholic death/doom style but Majestic Downfall are a band that do it very well indeed. If you want some music to fill you with crushing emptiness and dread then Majestic Downfall will fill that role admirably.
