review: Bull Elephant -- UK prog doom

Bull Elephant

Created From Death

Eat Lead and Die Music

14 August 2020

This entity might not be difficult to the fanatics all things prog, but there is something about it that requires work to be understood. Here is the basic scoop: they have a fundamental doom theme going, with moments of extremity, and with both extreme and melodic vocals. The guitar tone is doomish and Iommish. It might not be too far off the target to say that is a doom style that takes deep dives into extreme metal. A song may go something like this: mellow intro, some Sabbath riffs, extreme vocals, then some uptempo parts (maybe some blasting) and then slow it back down, and some melodic vocals. The sound quality is good, and they have good vibes. Both doom and prog fans may get some mileage out of this album.

The sound of the drums is rather sterile (sampled drumming? drum programming?), as is the case in contemporary metal, but it is acceptable if you do not care too much about the issue of drums. The biggest problem is the sensation that the transitions in genres within songs, or lack thereof, make it too abrupt. It is the type of album that will need repeated listens, but even after repeated listens this particular listener still found the transitions too abrupt. For instance, repeated listens to certain songs still yielded no smoother vibes from the songs.

Created From Death by Bull Elephant