Expiatoria - gothic doom from Italy

Expiatoria

Shadows

Diamonds Prod.

November 4th, 2022

The Italian doom band Expiatoria's first recording, according to Metal Archives, was done in 1987. I cannot seem to find that first self-titled demo on YouTube, but their second demo (1991) Tribute to Death is on YouTube. The demo sound quality is not a problem for me because the songs are good. It's heavy, classic-style doom heavy metal. It's not super slow, it's just that it is not full-on heavy metal speed. Candlemass fans would understand Expiatoria. Their 1992 demo is also on YouTube. It is called Symphonies of Decomposed Human Flesh. In this case, the demo's low quality of the recording is just too low to hear the music. It's not the kind of recording that does any favors to the band and I would think it's good to have it documented as evidence of the band's work in the past, but I would not recommend the demo to anyone, not because the songs are bad but rather because the sound quality is lower than bad.

If that had been the band's last recording, it would have been a sad statement, a sad way to end. In 1996 the band ended, according to Metal Archives, only to return with an EP in 2010 and another EP in 2018.

In 2022 their newest album is called Shadows. I am not knowledgeable enough to express an opinion on the personnel. There have been lots of people in and out of the band, given that this entity began and was active in the 1980s. The band has told me that the Malachina brothers (see below) are the two founders and have been in the band since 1987.

Metal Archives shows this line-up:

Giambattista Malachina (bass)

Massimo Malachina (guitars)

Flux (keyboards)

David Krieg (vocals) [Hexenfaust, Loculo, Progeria, Soul of Enoch, Tony Tears, Neith, ex-The Lifeless, ex-Hastur, ex-Malignance, ex-Ignis Fatuus, ex-Kathekon, ex-Lux Obscuritatis]

Edoardo Napoli (guitars [2018-present]) [Flegias, ex-Edoardo Napoli, ex-Honourblast, ex-Sick Therapy Armageddon, ex-Damnation Gallery, ex-Vereor Nox]

Enrico Meloni drums (2022-present) [Ikitan, The Healing Process, ex-Save Energy!].

What about the music on this album?! Well, I would say that it is gothic doom heavy metal or music based on heavy metal, a doom type of heavy metal, a doom and horror type. Maybe it's an Italian thing. Some of these older Italian bands have a thing for horror heavy metal, and that's here, in some ways in the creepy vibes looming around the doom. However, before people get the wrong idea, let's clarify what this is not. It is not traditional, steel-and-leather hymns heavy metal. It is not horror metal, not goblins, witches and movie samples horror heavy metal. It is not even doom in the sense that fans here in the United States imagine: it's not sludge, not Sabbath-worship, not stoner-doom.

This has too many other things going on to be "pure" doom or "pure" anything. Those "other things" are probably the gothic elements. The old-wizard vocals and the overall creepy vibes throughout the album. It is plenty of midtempo and slower moods, and it is plenty of sad, melancholic feels, too. Come for the doom, stay for the funeral feeling. It's doom with dimensions of strange and weird tales.

Shadows by ExpiatoriA

https://www.facebook.com/ExpiatoriA