The 11th Room
Nilo Magus (Demo) 2002 None
It is really striking how big the influence of bands like Skepticism, Unholy and Shape of Despair has been on the underground doom scene. This demo release contains prime quality funeral doom, obviously influenced by aforementioned bands. From the very start, the 3/4 beat hints vaguely to Shape of Despair's first release, whereas the vocals could have been done by Unholy's vocalist. A couple of tempo and beat changes later -from slow to even slower- the combination of crushing funeral doom guitars with an underlying layer of bass and semi-acoustic guitar works very well. A violin is added to the whole, but unlike the music of My Dying Bride or Shape of Despair, where the violin is added as a finishing touch to the guitar melodies, in 'Nilo Magus' it just adds to the total torture of the music, especially the diatonal melody in the middle part of the song. Funeral doom in the vein of Shape of Despair, with the gloominess of Unholy, is what you should expect from this excellent underground release. The most remarkable thing about this release though, is probably the fact that the band hails from the Netherlands instead of the dark moors of Finland. The cd can be ordered for 5 Euro (+sending costs) from Ralph, the mastermind behind this project. Band contact: eleventh_doom@hotmail.com	1. Nilo Magus Approx. 19 minutes
Reviewed by: Heiko Isselee