Apothecary - Drifting Towards The Ancients - review
Apothecary - Drifting Towards The Ancients - review
Tracklist
01. Fortune Doesn't Smile On The Damned [feat. Kayla Smalley]02. Dawn On Me
03. No Void To Feed On
04. Gamma Soul
05. Into The Cauldron
A review by
Auntie Sahar April 30, 2015
Drifting Towards The Ancients, the debut effort from Apothecary, is a death doom album containing a lot of that second one and very, very little of the first one. Being predominantly doom, as one could imagine, the music here is crunchy, heavy, and at times even surprisingly catchy (see "Dawn On Me" especially). At times the rhythmic pulse of the doom gives way to some more melodic interludes that are quite relaxed and airy, most notably towards the middle of "Gamma Soul." Though these sections are often brief, the transition between them and the thicker, more riff-heavy tone that dominates is smooth, natural, and well executed. The album is definitely a bit of a grower in this respect: the more you listen to those shifts between heavy and melodic, the more you come to appreciate how well the band has this technique down.
The death metal side of things, however, is where Apothecary begin to encounter some issues. Other than the presence of some deep, guttural growls, this side of the band's personality is virtually absent on Drifting Towards The Ancients, and as a result, it feels rather underdeveloped and somewhat unnecessary in the composition as a whole. When taking the clean vocals on the album into consideration, powerful outbursts that could fit splendidly in an epic doom band, the growls by contrast feel rather weak and uninspired, and raise the question of where exactly Apothecary were trying to go with this aspect of their sound.
Drifting Towards The Ancients, while not a bad release, would quite likely do much better with either the expansion upon, or the all out elimination of, its death metal elements. Preferably the latter; in a way the growls here feel as if they're holding the album back, and are simply not needed when considering how well everything else fits together without them. As a whole, this debut of Apothecary would probably be a lot more enjoyable as a purely doom album, even if not a highly original one, as the band have a much better grasp on that sound and are clearly more comfortable with it. Final ruling here? Many good ideas at work, but the "not so good" ones could use a little refinement.
Go have a peek.
Rating breakdown
| Performance: | 8 |
| Songwriting: | 7 |
| Originality: | 6 |
| Production: | 7 |
Written by Auntie Sahar | April 30, 2015
Comments
Comments:
10
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139 users
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Posts: 5826  |
Posts: 5826
Wut? Why is there no Karlabos band? xD
---- "Aah! The cat turned into a cat!" - Reimu Hakurei
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 Posts: 64460 |
Posts: 64460
Now I know where does band name comes from, seems they are inspired from Che nick here
---- I stand whit Ukraine and Israel. They have right to defend own citizens. Stormtroopers of Death - "Speak English or Die"  I better die, because I never will learn speek english, so I choose dieing
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 Posts: 4286 |
Posts: 4286 Written by Karlabos on 30.04.2015 at 05:56 Same here but at least my namesake is a guitarist in a punk band  As for the album, I might even enjoy it.
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Posts: 5989 Written by Bad English on 30.04.2015 at 11:40 You never know... apparently they formed in 2012, and I changed my name to Apothecary on here around then. I'm going to claim plagiarism 
---- I am the Magician and the Exorcist. I am the axle of the wheel, and the cube in the circle. “Come unto me” is a foolish word: for it is I that go. ~ II. VII
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Posts: 64460 Written by Auntie Sahar on 30.04.2015 at 16:14 hahhaha it means perms taken away and total ban LOL
---- I stand whit Ukraine and Israel. They have right to defend own citizens. Stormtroopers of Death - "Speak English or Die" I better die, because I never will learn speek english, so I choose dieing
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 Posts: 1127 |
Posts: 1127
---- Daily underground metal recommendations at Metal Trenches. Watch metal content on the Metal Trenches YouTube Channel.
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| Posts: 5989 |
Posts: 5989
---- I am the Magician and the Exorcist. I am the axle of the wheel, and the cube in the circle. “Come unto me” is a foolish word: for it is I that go. ~ II. VII
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| Posts: 1127 |
Posts: 1127
---- Daily underground metal recommendations at Metal Trenches. Watch metal content on the Metal Trenches YouTube Channel.
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 Posts: 7913 |
Posts: 7913
My next review will be for Cynic from Cynic.
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Posts: 3104  |
Posts: 3104
Good review. It seems the only real issue is the harsh vocals. Going from your description I would've expected a little higher rating, but that's alright. Going to check it out for sure, in any case.
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