Unmercenaries- Fallen In Disbelief

Well, I feel as if a ten-ton hammer has smashed my head in after listening to the heaping slab of Funeral Doom/Death in the form of Russia/Germany’s Unmercenaries, with their debut album, “Fallen in Disbelief.” Now, I myself am a purveyor of all things doomy, and I went into this album with high expectations, and I found myself leaving pretty satisfied. Most key elements of a Funeral Doom release are present here, skullcrushingly heavy guitars and bass, growled vocals, a snail-like pace and an affinity for a bleak and dirgelike tone throughout. Without a doubt the members of Unmercenaries are competent, and it shows as the record slowly burns through 4 cuts of pure meaty doom. Not that this is all chug and grunt the whole way through, no. The heaviness is dispersed with acoustic guitars and airy keyboards, which, although refreshing after being beaten into submission by the previous wall of noise, can come across sometimes as a bit limp-wristed, perhaps because of the production, which is to be honest my biggest complaint about the album.

While the guitars sear and scorch your mind, and the bass has a very nasty, awesome tone, at many points I found myself wishing that the overall quality and tone of the album was a bit grittier, a bit fuzzier, and a bit more haunting. The production is very crisp and concise, which in my opinion sucks a bit of life out of everything. Especially with the very dramatic keyboard flourishes, which come out sounding a bit distracting and out of place at times. At the beginning of “Circle of Disbelief,” we get an almost new-agey sounding flute line accompanying the acoustic guitar. It sounds more like something I would listen to while falling asleep than metal. Not to say that ambient/clean sections in doom songs can’t be done well (see “Depression’s Hammer” by Loss for some extremely beautiful clean sections) but in this case, it seems lifted from something unrelated to the song. Once it does get down to the heavy part, I’ve already forgotten about the clean section, because of the lack of flow, and I feel this detracts from the album overall.

On a positive note, the heavy parts really grind on your skull, drawing more comparisons to death/doom than funeral doom. Really heavy, lumbering riffs set against loud, growling bass, thunderous drumming, and some really sick, burbly growls. I almost wish sometimes that they would venture into more interesting song arrangements, which is something that I rarely think about while listening to doom, seeing as in doom, you’re supposed to nod along and want to hear the same riff again for ten minutes. With this album, although it was enjoyable, I found myself wishing that they would switch it up a bit, which in itself is counterproductive to doom itself.

In the end, though, Unmercenaries have crafted a nice little record that I wish I could change a bit slightly, but hey, that’s my opinion. Cut out the cheesy synths and pretty sounding acoustics, record in a basement, and try and sound as grim as possible next time, guys. I’m looking forward to how they improve on themselves with their next record.

facebook.com/pages/Unmercenaries

Score: 7/10

Favorite Tracks: Among the Stars (that bass tone!!!)