Blood Ceremony - Living With The Ancients

Blood Ceremony are a doom metal band from Toronto, Ontario, Canada. They play good ol' doom in the vein of Sabbath, and with a wide array of instruments/musically talented members, they're a great addition to Canada's growing metal scene. Their first self-titled record focuses more on the band's diversity (that comes with having an incredibly talented female vocalist who puts her keyboard and flute skills to good work here), and there's a lot of odd tempo-ed songs on this album. Ultimately, it feels like a bit more of an experimental record, where the band is waffling on whether to be a traditional doom sounding band, or something a bit more ecletic.

Having said that, their next album, Living With The Ancients, is more of a return to classic doom metal. Even though people seem to like this album less, I feel like the band has greatly improved: the band has found where it wants to be with it's music, and the songs generally feel less repetitive/sporadic than they did on their previous album. And the music talent/atmosphere is no less pronounced here: if anything, it's amplified by the cohesiveness of the songwriting here.

In short: traditional sounding doom metal with female vocals and flute solos. Good. Both albums are excellent and worth listening to, so really it's up to what you prefer with your music.

ARTIST: BLOOD CEREMONY

ALBUM: LIVING WITH THE ANCIENTS

GENRE: DOOM METAL

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