UMUR
"Gloom" is the self-titled debut release by US, Washington, DC based extreme metal act Gloom. It´s an independently released EP made available in June 2014 in both digital form and as a physical CD. The latter is only available upon direct request to the band. Gloom was formed in 2012 and consists of Bill Calomiris (Vocals) Jason Sayell (Bass), Chris Shull (Drums), and Danny Galoubandi (Guitars).
The music on the EP is primarily technically well played death metal, but as the music also features elements from hardcore, groove metal, and sludge/doom, the term extreme metal is probably more fitting for the band´s style. It´s obvious that these guys are not restricted to using elements from only a few genres, but instead chose to use the stylistic elements they feel fit the mood of the material. Depending on how you fell about mixing up genre elements it´s probaboy either a great strength or a cause for confusion and frustration. To my ears Gloom succeeds very well in mixing the various stylistic elements into an atmospheric, brutal, groove oriented, and technically well played extreme metal style.
The EP features 6 tracks and a full playing time of 16:30 minutes. The first track is a short intro, but from "Entity" and onwards, you´ll be treated to structurally interesting tracks (it´s interesting how many different ideas they are able to incorporate in 2 - 4 minutes long tracks, and still make them sound consistent in style) delivered by skilled musicians. The vocals are both deep growling, aggressive growling, and higher pitched screaming.
The EP is packed in a powerful, raw, and well sounding production, so all in all this EP is a quality debut release by Gloom. They may still need to work a bit more on creating a more distinct recognisable sound, but other than that this is a great and promising first release and a 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.