Album Review: Witnesses - Doom II (Progressive Doom, 2020)

Hardly any Doom Metal release touches me much these days. It's not that I dislike it. It's simply as if it feels like anything has been said and performed already.

Until one day this release of Witnesses reached me. It opened up my ears back again. How? Besides the traditional doom trademarks like the powerful guitars and the well known compact rhythm package that accompanies the music it has more to offer.

The album tells the story of a cursed plague-bearing ship that finds landfall at one unfortunate village. 

It's a good batch of feelings that shines at the right moments. The music becomes more sensible. Finetuned melodies find their way into the sound giving it a broken touch. It feels like the own sensible emotional world of a human comes in to bring a own color to the picture.

All tracks are total longplayers. You can easily loose yourselves a bit in them.
Happily they are not too long to become boring or make you skip easily.

There's a need for concentration but at the same time it's also headbang-compatible material so there's still enough fun and heavyness inside. Much dedication and detail-work can be heard. Sometimes you can find your own feelings in works of musicians. That's what happened at least to me with this release.

My faves are the opener "On this Black Ocean" for the epic feelings and "Worse with time" for the heavier side.

It's a independent release. Please consider a purchase of this directly through
the band's Bandcamp page. It's available as a download for just one dollar or more.

Keep in touch with Witnesses through Facebook or the growing popular platform Instagram.

Iris gives a look insight through her voice

From time to time I'd like to point readers of this blog to other musical styles. There's so much good music out there that isn't metal.

Iris comes from Italy. She's a singer songwriter and has released a full album on Bandcamp. In recent times  we were able to follow her activities on YouTube where she uploads covers of songs that she feels related to. The latest videos featured tunes in italian language something that made me even more curious since I've not heard too many of those songs before.

Iris while working on a new cover, (c) by Iris, used with kind permission

Her biggest strength in my ears is the possibility to express her inner feelings with the voice. Iris can let go of her emotions and boundaries and share it through music. Her expressive face speaks out so clearly to me how she feels.

It's one more time in my lifetime that I feel understood by music. It often feels as if it talks about what I want to say, too. Maybe this is one of the many reasons why music has the status it has for me. I hope it will stay forever. Come and have a taste in the player below.

Curious how the story goes on? Follow Iris via Facebook or better subscribe to her YouTube channel directly.