BATHSHEBA — Servus (review)

BATHSHEBA — Servus album cover Album · 2017 · Doom Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
adg211288
Servus (2017), is the debut full-length album by Belgian doom metal act Bathsheba. The group were formed in 2013 and have previously released a demo (2014) and an EP, The Sleepless Gods (2015). The title track of that EP, which also appeared on the demo, has been carried forward to this full-length debut. The four piece band have a fair background between them within the Belgian metal scene, playing in bands in a range of genres including Death Penalty, Torturerama, Gorath and Serpentcult.

Servus is one of those albums that sticks quite rigidly to its style, which is female voiced doom metal with an occasional lightly blackened touch, mostly in the form of some raspy growled vocals but sometimes also in the music, such as the introduction to Ain Soph, which is quite the raw cacophony and a little more up-tempo than the album's norm. The order of the day is slow, heavy riffs and haunting vocal work, though there are some lighter, more atmospheric sections as well, such as in Manifest. Ain Soph offers up the only real surprise when some saxophone is thrown in. As such, it's a very easy album to get to grips with what it's all about.

While this does mean that Bathsheba's debut isn't the most adventurous or unusual doom metal release out there, even within the current niche of female fronted acts doing the rounds, it does also quickly prove itself to be a very focussed one, which then, as its digested some more, reveals some subtle moments of brilliance, not least the aforementioned saxophone part from Ain Soph, as well as some excellent use of melodic lead guitar on Manifest. Singer Michelle Nocon puts on a hypnotising vocal performance too, delivering her lines like a they're a ritualistic incantation, with both the clean singing and growls skilfully delivered on all six of the album's tracks. It's this level of consistency that really elevates the album up to something that, although it's not groundbreaking, is nevertheless really quite impressive.

Servus is not a perfect debut album for the Belgian doomsters by any means, but it is a solid one that they can be very proud of. I'm excited to hear how they might build on what has been started here. Bathsheba have a very good base sound and have already shown the beginnings of a willingness to experiment. They just need more of that now to really add the wow factor to what they do, something that will set them apart from other similar acts that have made a name for themselves in the last few years.
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