The Living Fields
The Miseries Never Cease (CD) 2004 None
According to the band's website, The Living Fields is a band whose music is "built around a core of deep respect for the early death /doom architects," that incorporates "healthy doses of thrash, black, Viking and epic metals that reflect the underlying moods and themes of the lyrics." In fact, that is exactly what the band does in this self-produced and excellent sounding cd! What I really find surprising is the early doom/death architects they seem to honor are none other than California's mid-eighties pioneers of the genre Cirith Ungol! Anyone familiar (as anyone into the roots of the genre should be) with CU will instantly recognize the unique vocals of Higgs to be very reminiscent of the love him or hate him vox of CU's Tim Baker. It's a kind of raspy, nasally, blackish scream that works very well here for The Living Fields as it did for CU in their seminal slab of epic doomish/death release 'King of the Dead.' In addition to the aforementioned vox, Higgs uses a death growl and spoken word to get the band’s message across to the listener. Unfortunately, no lyrics are provided with the CD, but what the band seems to be lashing out at in addition to "love, loss and death" is the capitalistic/class system of the good ol' USA. (It is here that I have to put my own personal leanings aside and let the lads make their political statement without me attacking the whole basis of their commentary). The cool thing about "The miseries never cease" is the Godspeed You Black Emperor homage track three entitled 'Dim Prospects.' If you are not familiar with GYBE they are difficult to describe, I guess you could say they play an ambient type of music-with some spoken passages-gloomy to the max-not doom but damn forlorn- worth looking into for all my brothers in doom! Anyway, I am a huge fan of these guys, especially the oddly titled album '# a# 00', and 'Dim Prospects' is a carbon copy in style, sound and lyric of the lead track 'Dead Flag Blues.' Just damn fine doominess! Overall, The Living Fields are an interesting entry into our beloved world of doom- a splendid blend of various styles of metal worthy of a listen from all who support and enjoy doom. (The cd is downloadable free at the band's website).	1. A Leveling Spirit 2. The Miseries Never Cease 3. Dim Prospect 4. Empires Fall Approx. 22 minutes
Reviewed by: Jay Murphy