Lazarus fail to spark
Lazarus Blackstar hail from Bradford, and have strong links with Doom, Medulla Nocte and Murder One, not to mention having played a show with noise merchants Capricorns. So, if they've got all this experience and talant, why is "Revelations" such a poor album?
Well, from what I can tell, the idea of this album was to take some Doom music, throw in much heavier and crunchier bass lines, and roar over the top of it. Sadly, the band didn't deem it inportant enough to speed the music up, so what you have is strange bass led ballads with someone roaring over the top. Now, whilst the sound of slow doom metal may interest fans of My Dying Bride, it's inportant that you know what you're getting yourself into before you do this. This is not your traditional doom metal album. The band are relying heavily on simple guitar work and screeching rather than doing something dynamic. They have failed to add anything to the mix to hold the attention of the listener.
However, the track "The Tragedy Of The Monochrome Man" is a diamond in the rough. It's the only track with any sort of interesting element - the guitars and the drums compliament each other in a way the majority of the rest of the album doesn't. It's just a shame there is only one track really worth checking out. Doom metal obsessives may find this enjoyable, but your average metalhead won't.