Band:	S.C.A.L.P.
Album:	Tears And Blood
Style:	Death doom metal, Gothic doom metal
Release date:	December 2004

01. Out Of Madness
02. A Heart Was Beating
03. A Heart Was Beatin (Part II)
04. Broken Pines
05. Tears And Blood
06. Tears And Blood (Part II)
07. Removal [re-mastering]
08. Who Dared To Say [re-mastering]

S.C.A.L.P. comes from Russia and plays a Doom Metal that is not so easy to classify (maybe in the vein of a Solitude Aeturnus). This "Tears And Blood" is actually a re-edition of the album (released in 2000) through the Russian label, Metalism Records. If one can't say that "Tears And Blood" is a bad album, one can't deny too that it suffers of its irregularity in the compositions.

Actually if some songs like the two last long ones "Removal" and "Who Dared To Say" are really interesting in reason of the numerous melodic breaks that we can find in them, some of the others songs of the album are not so well done. My principal problem comes from the numerous changes of rhythms. When I listen to Doom Metal, I don't like to have something slow that turns into double pedal Death metal every 20 seconds. I don't say that changes of rhythms are not possible with Doom, but when it's a bit anarchic like on this album, that's not so cool. Also I regret the average voice of the singer that can be the best like the worst? Something should be done on this point.

But "Tears And Blood" at least have good melodies and ambiances (even if it suffers of an average recording) and the compositions can be catchy sometime. I have the feeling actually that the problem with this album is just a problem of musical maturity. With time S.C.A.L.P.'s compositions will be better.

As you can see, this "Tears And Blood" is not the best Doom release of the year, but this is also the first album of the band and they will probably release some better CD in the future. This one is not a bad start, at the opposite, and I think that the band could produce good albums in the future, it will come with time and practice.