To be honest, The Bengal cult have never seen the emergence of too many doom metal bands to thrive and shine. Well, that’s an overstatement certainly, as there was only one band named ‘Shadow of Doom‘ who were able to release two doom albums, ‘Rising from the Past‘ and ‘The 2nd Chapter‘ (which you can listen here) on this Bengal soil. Then we finally get to see Old Witch Cemetery to take over the responsibility of bringing a Doom Over Bengal.
Frankly speaking, this is a huge leap taken by the band in the context of uprising Bangladeshi metal scenario. Not only OWC brought doom amidst those many death/thrash metal spree, the band also marked the debut of a dedicated metal label Retro-Claw Records. Too many words put for the introduction, right? Well, I just had to. Because the most remarkable thing OWC have done with this release is using Bangla for writing all the lyrics. We haven’t seen many bands doing that, may be Rock Strata and Barzak were among the bands that used Bangla lyrics on their albums previously. (Pardon me, if I missed any).
A few words on the music. All the instrumental works on Doom Over Bengal are done by Father WitchChaser solely. A few guest appearances are also seen on the guitar solos though. The song structures are not that complex, mostly based on typical, straight forward doom metal riffs. All four original songs are simple, yet catchy and sung with deeply worked lyrics. What attracts me the most is the deep, muddy production that provides the haunting ‘doom’ish feels. I would really love to give all credits to its production, but WitchChaser’s amusing vocal demands a special mention here too. Those eerily clean vocals really soothes the darkened atmosphere of the demo.
Why would you listen to this release? Answer is, you just HAVE TO. Nothing groundbreaking to dig here for all those audiophiles. But for a dedicated heavy metal fan, Doom Over Bengal is a superb addition to his collection. The eerie, darkened doom metal flourishes with elegance throughout the demo CD. So, try to collect the CD from Retro-Claw Records as the copies are limited.
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