Album Review: Doomsday Profit - Doomsday Profit
Reviewed by Oli Gonzalez
Hailing from North Carolina, USA, Doomsday Profit return with their self-titled sophomore album. This looks to build on their firmly established sludgy and stoner metal roots with an even more expansive and experimental sound.
Within the first few moments of listening to “Doomsday Profit”, you’ll be greeted with that desert, southern metal feel, densely layered and packing a punch. The vocals are consistently heavy and distorted whilst still retaining the right amount of diction and clarity to make the lyrics intelligible. The guitars shift effortlessly from distorted and grim to melodic and intricate throughout the album, especially during ‘It’s Already Over’. Though it feels logical and calculated rather than just throwing random riffs together in mad-scientist fashion! If you want a blistering and soaring guitar solo, check out ‘Spirits’! In fact, the whole song is a solid advertisement for the band’s collective guitar skills from Bryan and Kevin.
If I had to pick out one song as the album’s standout, it would be ‘The South Will Sink’. I’ve always admired bands that prioritise tone and emotion over needlessly complexity in their riffs, and the guitar work here is a living embodiment of that! Reminiscent of funeral doom stand outs such early Bell Witch, or Ahab. This is definitely one of the longer songs, hovering just north of 6 minutes. Though Doomsday Profit are just as comfortable delivering short sharp bursts filled with irritatingly catchy earworms, such as ‘Terror Cycle’ or ‘Drive Into The Sun’. Honestly, try to listen to either without humming the chorus afterwards!
Drummer David seems to be pushed into the background for most of the album, steadily keeping the beat and pulse of Doomsday Profit. Though it’s really during ‘Sin Eater’ where he gets to display his skills the most, in particular with the introduction of the meaty double kick drum that adds a more frantic tempo and a reminder of the talent he possesses.
For all the strengths of this album, the production doesn’t really bring out the best in the band’s instruments nor does it really present the band’s compositional prowess in the best light. Whilst one has to manage their expectations and be mindful of the resources available to smaller bands like Doomsday Profit, there’s times when it feels far too amateur and too thin. Though these are problems that are very much fixable and it’s more like a house that needs a lick of paint and some decoration rather than a full renovation job! After all, Doomsday Profit are onto something with their sound. A sound that sticks to the tried and tested core elements of sludge metal whilst still injecting just enough of their own creative juices to place their own stamp on the sub-genre.
