BLESSED REALM - Doomography 1993-2003 CD (digipak)

Blessed Realm were a doom band who originated around the time of what a lot of people might call the "golden age" of the British doom scene. The early 90s were a fruitful time for doom metal, and in the wake of the famous Saint Vitus/Cathedral tour and the "big three" of Paradise Lost, My Dying Bride and Anathema, tons of death metal bands discovered Witchfinder General and slowed down their recycled Massacre riffs by half.

The first few tracks on this collection come from their first demo, which to me is their best material (probably cos a dub of this demo was the first thing I ever heard by them!). It's great, ultra-mournful and minimalistic doom metal, but with a superb ear for a melody. I love the buried and sorrowful vocals. This is what DOOM sounds like.

The next demo represented here is the Chasing The Dragon demo, which is still proper heavy doom but a wee bit more upbeat, and which maybe suffers a wee bit from a drum machine instead of live drums.

"Return To Zero" is maybe their most well-known and widely-distributed demo, and by this point (1998) the band were full-on doom rock. I guess stoner rock was in full flow at this point and this material reminds me of the great (and forgotten) YEAR ZERO:...  more