Metal Storm logo
Ophis - Withered Shades review




Bandcamp music player
Reviewer:
9.0

57 users:
8.21
Band: Ophis
Album: Withered Shades
Release date: June 2010


01. The Halls Of Sorrow
02. Suffering Is A Virtue
03. Earth Expired
04. Necrotic Reflection
05. Halo Of Worms

There are some bands that inhale doom and exhale doooom, automatically separating themselves from the womb of mediocre or good/very good releases. Ophis has to be one of them, a Deutsch doom/death metal act that gave birth to the most representative work of the genre for 2010 so far, Withered Shades.

I really don't know from where to start and where to end, this album is an earthquake and the seismic waves sweep the place, at first you sense the threat approaching and then everything collapses. Yes, this album is heavy, heavy to the bone, the distortion expands all over the place and the great riffs succeed one another so naturally that you can't escape this colossal wall of sound that reaches new heights every time you seem to approach the top. Despite its heavy air, you will find many wonderful moments that add an intense vibe of melody or even acoustic-driven passages that offer diversity to the sound so as not to sound monotonous, monolithic yes, monotonous no. Ophis like it slow, but they like it outbursting as well and never forget to shake the foundations of your house and pass over the remains like a steam-roller just to make sure they didn't leave a column standing. Phlipp's interpretation is conquering, deep grunts make the earth tremble in fear whereas his more shrieking lines that appear sporadically offer diversity and present another extreme face of Withered Shades. And we couldn't forget the rhythm section, the bass lines lend depth and vibration while the drumming will not stick to the basics, Nils Groth appears to be a charismatic drummer offering many creative passages through the whole duration of the album. Of course it will be slow-paced whenever needed but it won't forget to ruin your calmness with its powerful and upbeat air.

No, they don't require keyboards (except for the last minute of "Halo Of Worms"), after all, the atmosphere of the album relies on the basic instruments, we're talking about old-fashioned doom/death metal that asks for imposing rhythm section, powerful guitars that never forget to ease your burden with melody and a great throat. Ophis passed the test and the fact that inspiration reigns supreme amongst its compositions won't let them rely on a basic idea, on the contrary, you will find notice many great changes within a single song that will blow your mind. Take for example the post-7:30 era of "The Halls Of Sorrow" that lowers your defences with its fragile aura or the post-11:55 heart-rending passage that bursts into a beautiful solo, the post-3:50 ultra groovy passage from "Suffering Is A Virtue" with the awesome drum sound that steadily blasts the whole place, the opening of "Earth Expired" that crushes your brain to pulp, then slows down dangerously and leaves you numb so that later you'll be an easier target to be knocked down after the 9th minute.

Well, the only thing you have to do is get your hands on this album and let it do the job for you, all 64 minutes will entomb you to the core of the earth, if you like it heavy, heavy and heavy you won't be dissapointed, doom what thou wilt, shall be the whole of the law.


Rating breakdown
Performance: 10
Songwriting: 9
Originality: 7
Production: 9





Written on 15.10.2010 by "It is myself I have never met, whose face is pasted on the underside of my mind."


Comments

Comments: 27   Visited by: 239 users
15.10.2010 - 15:12
!J.O.O.E.!
Account deleted
Will definitely check this one out. Think I read Marcel liked this a lot too. Nice work as usual!
Loading...
15.10.2010 - 15:24
Rating: 9
KwonVerge
Odysseus
Written by Guest on 15.10.2010 at 15:12

Will definitely check this one out. Think I read Marcel liked this a lot too. Nice work as usual!

Yeah, marcel did state something like that as far as i recall Thanks mate!
----
Dec. 30, 1334.

...And the whiskey and wine entered our veins when blood was too weak to carry on.
Loading...
15.10.2010 - 17:08
Marcel Hubregtse
Grumpy Old Fuck
Frigging great doom/death album with a prefect production. Not original music but so extremely well executed it's unbelievable.

Saw them live last Sunday where they totally tore the place apart.
----
Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal

Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight
Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.)
05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996

Loading...
15.10.2010 - 17:17
Bad English
Tage Westerlund
Good band, good, I like it , I gonna try get this CD, because its awesome, shood be, necause prev stuff is good

Snake - Withered Shades
----
Life is to short for LOVE, there is many great things to do online !!!

Stormtroopers of Death - ''Speak English or Die''
apos;'
[image]
I better die, because I never will learn speek english, so I choose dieing
Loading...
15.10.2010 - 17:19
Rating: 9
KwonVerge
Odysseus
Yeah, actually ophis in hellenic language means snake
----
Dec. 30, 1334.

...And the whiskey and wine entered our veins when blood was too weak to carry on.
Loading...
15.10.2010 - 17:22
Marcel Hubregtse
Grumpy Old Fuck
Who cares about what the name means in what language. k7 even gets a hard on from watching the Greek national football team play. he is totally obsessed by anything Greek hahahaha
----
Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal

Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight
Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.)
05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996

Loading...
15.10.2010 - 17:24
Rating: 9
KwonVerge
Odysseus
----
Dec. 30, 1334.

...And the whiskey and wine entered our veins when blood was too weak to carry on.
Loading...
15.10.2010 - 18:04
Rating: 6
Ag Fox
Angel No More
What an opening line for a review ^^
need to check this out!
----
loves 小巫
Loading...
15.10.2010 - 18:38
Bad English
Tage Westerlund
DerRoz - I know it what it means :p
Marcel - Nop Im not a fan of greek flower band Firewind :p
----
Life is to short for LOVE, there is many great things to do online !!!

Stormtroopers of Death - ''Speak English or Die''
apos;'
[image]
I better die, because I never will learn speek english, so I choose dieing
Loading...
16.10.2010 - 03:48
advent

Written by Ag Fox on 15.10.2010 at 18:04

What an opening line for a review ^^
need to check this out!

+1
Loading...
16.10.2010 - 13:09
Merchant of Doom

Awesome album...
Loading...
16.10.2010 - 14:29
Rating: 9
InnerSelf
proofread free
It is by far my favorite Extreme Doom metal release of the year
great review
----
He who is not bold enough
to be stared at from across the abyss
is not bold enough
to stare into it himself.
Loading...
16.10.2010 - 18:06
Ander

Definitely love your reviews. I've checked one song so far, and now I'm typing this between bits of skull and brain pulp.
Loading...
17.10.2010 - 13:38
Eidwlon

Very nice release, thank you for this review! They are indeed very seperate from common doom metal bands, with their peculiar sound. Nonetheless I'd not have given this album a 9/10, because they may have a good sound, but the five songs on the album are not that different from each other. There's no variation, you might as well listen to the first song five times...
Loading...
19.10.2010 - 04:39
advent

After listening to this album for a while, i liked a lot , but sometimes i have the feeling that i am listening to Evoken , and like what have been said above , there is no variety in the album .
Loading...
19.10.2010 - 10:27
Marcel Hubregtse
Grumpy Old Fuck
Written by advent on 19.10.2010 at 04:39

After listening to this album for a while, i liked a lot , but sometimes i have the feeling that i am listening to Evoken , and like what have been said above , there is no variety in the album .


Evoken? ?
Then you should relisten both Ophis and Evoken back to back. Ophis has lots of uptempo drumming and even blastbeats at times, something you will never come across in Evoken. Evoken are almost funeral doom whereas Ophis is pure doom death. even bordering on death metal a lot of the times, a territory Evoken never enters.
----
Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal

Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight
Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.)
05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996

Loading...
19.10.2010 - 11:55
Rating: 9
InnerSelf
proofread free
I'd say they sound a lot like Mourning Beloveth at times but definitely not Evoken
----
He who is not bold enough
to be stared at from across the abyss
is not bold enough
to stare into it himself.
Loading...
21.10.2010 - 16:35
Daniell
_爱情_
Bloody excellent album from start to finish. It's great how they turn a simple, unoriginal concept into a well done piece of doom. The songs are very long, but they NEVER tend to drag, which is the case with many doom releases.
Loading...
22.10.2010 - 07:58
Derwood

This has become one of my favourite albums so far this year, along with Dark Fortress's and Watain's. It churns and changes and ebbs and flows making a very well crafted whole that rewards repeated close listens with subtle nuances rising to the fore that went unnoticed before. A very complete and coherent album.
----
You can't fight evil with a macaroni duck!
Loading...
22.10.2010 - 09:44
Daniell
_爱情_
Yeah, for the last three days I've found it hard to play other albums
Loading...
22.10.2010 - 10:22
Deadsoulman

It's indeed really impressive and much better than their EP and debut. Great increase in quality!
Loading...
31.03.2014 - 00:14
WlaDoom

Amazing band!!:bow:
Loading...
02.09.2015 - 18:39
Bad English
Tage Westerlund
Written by Guest on 15.10.2010 at 15:12

Will definitely check this one out. Think I read Marcel liked this a lot too. Nice work as usual!


so you copy Marcel and check albums what he likes?
----
Life is to short for LOVE, there is many great things to do online !!!

Stormtroopers of Death - ''Speak English or Die''
apos;'
[image]
I better die, because I never will learn speek english, so I choose dieing
Loading...
02.09.2015 - 18:57
Marcel Hubregtse
Grumpy Old Fuck
K7, will you please get a frigging life. And NO JOE is NOT like you.
----
Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal

Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight
Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.)
05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996

Loading...
02.09.2015 - 19:03
Bad English
Tage Westerlund
Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 02.09.2015 at 18:57

K7, will you please get a frigging life. And NO JOE is NOT like you.


do you say I copy you? I don't and Jooe comments suggested he listened it because you did lol
----
Life is to short for LOVE, there is many great things to do online !!!

Stormtroopers of Death - ''Speak English or Die''
apos;'
[image]
I better die, because I never will learn speek english, so I choose dieing
Loading...
02.09.2015 - 20:49
!J.O.O.E.!
Account deleted
Written by Bad English on 02.09.2015 at 18:39


so you copy Marcel and check albums what he likes?

I don't remember what I did 5 minutes ago, let alone 5 years.
Loading...
02.09.2015 - 21:15
Zap
Guest
Listening to other people's suggestions is copying now, ok.
Loading...

Hits total: 7390 | This month: 17