“A LAKE OF GHOSTS” AND A LEXICANUM OF DOOM

 

In this post we’ve collected two pieces of news that should be appealing to addicts of doom, one of which involves our doom-devoted interviewer, Comrade Aleks.

“A LAKE OF GHOSTS: THE LONG SHADOW OF MY DYING BRIDE”

The first piece of news concerns a devotion to the ground-breaking English doom band My Dying Bride. Specifically, Doom-metal.com has organized a compilation of MDB tracks as performed by an array of other bands. As explained by Doom-metal:

“We set out to make an album that would do justice to one of the most influential of all Doom bands, not by sticking within the Gothic/Death/Doom boundaries that My Dying Bride defined and made their own, but by inviting those from further afield in the Doom genres who found MDB just as vital in shaping their own paths. And we asked them to create their own versions of a song that would both demonstrate the influence and portray their own individual style, to show just how far the long shadow has been cast.”

 

 

The name of the compilation is A Lake of Ghosts: The Long Shadow of My Dying Bride. It has been released in a limited edition, heavy-duty card-bound and numbered double-CD in a 6-panel digipak format, with a 12-page booklet that includes a foreword by My Dying Bride’s Aaron Stainthorpe. The album was mastered by Greg Chandler at Priory Recording Studios — and this is the track list:

Disc 1
1. Omit – Feel The Misery
2. Dying Sun – Only Tears To Replace Her With
3. Memoirs – Like A Perpetual Funeral
4. Haiku Funeral – The Wreckage Of My Flesh
5. The Howling Void – A Doomed Lover
6. Of Spire & Throne – In Silence
7. Sol – Le Figlie Della Tempesta
8. Hela – For My Fallen Angel
9. Mushroom Fuzz – Two Winters Only

Disc 2
1. Camel Of Doom – The Cry Of Mankind
2. Until Death Overtakes Me – Sear Me MCMXCIII
3. Forever Autumn – The Crown Of Sympathy
4. Narrow House – The Bitterness And The Bereavement
5. Abysmal Growls of Despair – Sear Me
6. Estrangement – De Sade Soliloquy
7. Mekigah – God Is Alone
8. Bonus Track: Vita Dolorosa – She Is The Dark

A detailed discussion of the album can be found at the Doom-metal site HERE. For more details about how to acquire the album and related merch, use these links:

http://www.doom-metal.com/merch.php

https://doom-metal-com.bandcamp.com/releases

Below, we’ve embedded a sampler of music from the album for your enjoyment — as well as a full Bandcamp stream:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

LEXICANUM OF DOOM

Our Russian friend Comrade Aleks has contributed dozens of interviews to our site over the years, focusing on doom in a wide range of its many manifestations. He has a near-encyclopedic knowledge of the genre, and we are very happy to learn that he is assembling a book in which he puts that knowledge and devotion to good use. As Aleks explains:

Lexicanum of Doom is an overview of the doom scene, following the traditional side of the music. This book will cover such genres as traditional doom, stoner doom, psychedelic, epic doom, and their hybrids derived from different combinations of rock and metal components. I think that extreme doom subgenres deserve their own separate story, so I chose to avoid this huge part of the scene, and left it for another writer.

Here you’ll find the stories of the well-known forefathers of doom, like Pentagram, Trouble and Candlemass. We’ll take a look at the legacy of later explorers such as Cathedral and Electric Wizard. And of course – and this is the crux of the book – we’ll observe the growth of the genre all the way to the point where it is now.

So, Lexicanum of Doom is a kind of encyclopedia of doom. It was a difficult decision who to include or omit, but I mostly selected those bands which I know well – the bands with which I’ve already conducted in-depth interviews. This book is a kind of homage to their work: it’s like a limited vinyl edition for die-hard fans. You know – there are books about heavy metal, about black metal, and so on, and now we need this one before Doomsday arrives.

Aleks tell us that if there is sufficient interest in the book, it will be released in A4 format, with one black-and-white picture for each band and 8-12 pages of color inserts. “If there is less support — as may be expected — then I’ll only be able to print the book in A5, probably without the colour parts. So, the shape of doom is in your hands…”

Of course, we hope you will support Aleks‘ ambitious (and massive) project, for which he has already found a publisher. And to do that, go like this Facebook page, where you will also see alphabetized statuses that identify the many bands who will be discussed in the book:

https://www.facebook.com/lexicanumofdoom/