It’s often hard to describe why someone likes a record, especially those that are only special because there are some details “hidden”. It’s not even necessary that those details take much space to affect your opinion. The Australian musician Terry Vainoras surely understood this, as his project Subterranean Disposition would not stand out of the puddle of doom metal records otherwise.  

Subterranean Disposition was founded last year and yet it still managed to immediately get a label deal with Hypnotic Dirge Records for its selftitled debut record. The majority of the 54:39 minutes, which are divided on five overlong tracks, are filled with classic doom metal, which is streaked with some death metal influences, which can mostly be traced back to the vocals. Why does this record exceed the average qualitative horizon of the genre and what elements helped the record to do the breakthrough?

Well, the first and not really surprising fact is, that this fundament of less innovative but piteous doom is done really well, and that’s one of the most important facts, as the fundament is the most important thing about a record. The songs are mostly held in midtempo and defined through a soundscape of heavy and dragging guitars that are combined with slow drums. This fundament is spiced up by several melodies that shines through every once in a while and/or a steady interchange of clean vocals in the style of My Dying Bride or death metal like growls like the ones of Opeth or In Mourning. This basic fundament would have been enough for this record to be quite attractive as the songs are quite immersive from the scratch, but it’s quite clear that the songs need some alterations as they are at least over 8 minutes long.

These variations are both, boon and bane of the record. We start, as usual, with the good sides: The record features recurring soli, some slightly electronic influences or samples that spice things up, while the big surprises like the female vocals in Prolong this Agony and Wailing My Keen are the additional icing on the cake. These female vocals could be described as a mixture of the ones of Ayreon and Draconian, but they definitely are a question of taste. The, without a single doubt, best moment of the record clearly is the middle section of The Most Subtle Storm, which features a saxophone, which adds a nice jazzy note to the song. This single song/moment would be enough to recommend the record as a whole, but the interplay of slow doom and faster death metal passages are really nice as well.

Sadly, there are some alterations that are hard to endure, at least if you aren’t a hardcore doom fan. For instance the song Seven Sisters Of Sleep tries to live up to it’s name, as there is a really verbose passage. This song isn’t the only one with such a verbose passage and so there are quite some boring structures or unnecessary pauses. The last greater point of criticism are the artificial drums, although they used some good sounds, but the steady equality is quite demanding.

I guess everything was said before: Subterranean Disposition did release quite a brilliant record, although there are some flaws. A solid fundament formed by doom/death metal elements, which could be described as a mixture of My Dying Bride and In Mourning, is spiced up with some experiments like the saxophone in The Most Subtle Of Storms. You should just risk an ear and at least listen to the aforementioned song. If you don’t like this one, you wouldn’t like anything from the record.

Terry Vainoras, the sole member of this band, knows his doom, that's much certain. After all, we are hardly talking about a neophyte here - the man was part of bands such as Cryptal Darkness, The Eternal and InSomnius Dei, which also means he's well aware of the fact that burning passion for art is the key element if one is to submerge himself to the murky waters of this particular genre. To quote but a part of Terry's own lyrics taken from the opening song, "Between Apes And Angels": "Singing in colours becoming octaves unknown / We in turn then become thought itself" - not exactly Motley Crue "groupies & cocaine" way of thinking here, you see. 

'Subterranean Disposition' is an album that is both accessible (in lack of a better word) and demanding - sure, this is slow, heavy and sorrowful as set in stone by the early works of My Dying Bride, Anathema, Paradise Lost and Katatonia but paying attention reveals various different ingredients enriching the style and outcome of these 5 lengthy songs. Mixing in Pink Floyd-type psychedelia, some near-progressive metal guitar playing and bits that wouldn't sound out of place on a mid-period Ulver release - not to mention all used in a clever manner and not just slapped randomly for the sake of it - makes this album an intriguing listen. The vocals are just as varied as the music, so no monotone on that front too, which is always welcome. Here's an doom album that wouldn't exactly bury your sanity under tons of self-pity and depression but one that asks questions and gives hints on the possible answers at the same time. Take this like the equivalent of having a glass of fine red wine after a hard day, if you wish.

Terry Vainoras is a very interesting man for those who know about him. His experimental doom group InSomnius Dei put out one of the most interesting doom records of the last decade. I was really looking forward to hearing this album ever since I first heard about it last year. 

I wasn't exactly sure what sort of doom based project this was going to turn out being, because if you've heard InSomnius Dei, you know that it isn't just a singular style that they're playing around with. Pretty much the only thing I came in knowing was that this was a record based in doom metal and I was hoping that Vainoras was going to do something interesting with it. When an album happens to open with the sounds of howling and screaming monkeys, you know that you're going to get something that isn't exactly typical. The music that follows is just as interesting and experimental as the use of those samples might indicate. For me, the entire record really reminded me of My Dying Bride, but in a good way. Or, to be more specific, it's sort of what I'd imagine My Dying Bride sounding like if they had continued to experiment after 1998's 34.788%... Complete (which I don't think is nearly as bad as people make it out to be). The entire record could have come off sounding like MDB clone if it wasn't for those experimental passages that really brought out unique character in the songs. I have yet to hear MDB experiment with stoner rock, post-rock, or industrial music in their music; and frankly, as much as I love that band, Vainoras does more with the sound they pioneered in the mid-90s than they have done in the last several years. 

But as I always say, experimentation can only carry a band so far, and Vainoras knows how to write a good song. Each of the five songs on here has either a melody or a chorus that sticks with you and while it is something I did expect from this record, I don't think I could say with certainty that it was in the same form that I expected. The melody on Seven Sisters of Sleep is simply exquisite and quite elegant, in my opinion anyway. It's one of those rare melodies that reminds you why doom metal can be so addictive; and in the case of this melody it's spacey and trippy but also sort of progressive as well. But if that track was the project's melodic side, then The Most Subtle of Storms shows it's progressive side. Making use of various vocal effects and styles through the track in addition to an extended saxophone solo in its middle section, among other ideas, it proves to be the most adventurous track on the entire album. Frankly I did not care for the spoken word chorus of this song at all and found it rather irritating, but if that's the only thing I can say bad about the song, than I'd still consider it a winner. 

Aside from a few minor gripes, I thought this was just a terrific piece of work. It's a brave album that takes risks and plays around with different ideas, but still keeps songwriting close to the vest, and it winds up succeeding because of it. If you like doom in any fashion, I definitely recommend you look this album up. 

Some records are just naturally immersive. Examples, from across a range of genres, might include Pink Floyd’s seminal ‘Wish you were here’, Tool’s ‘lateralus’ or the recently reviewed Old Corpse Road album ‘Tis witching hour…’ All of these records draw the listener in and encourage you to enter a reverie as the music washes over you. Passages and even songs that might, in passing or in isolation, appear to be meandering or formless, when taken as part of a larger journey become life altering moments and albums such as these are to be considered rare occurrences to be embraced and shared with like-minded souls.

Subterranean Disposition, on this self-titled effort, offer one such album. An immense, immersive experience that ranges far and wide across musical and atmospheric soundscapes, the five tracks on offer here take the listener on a seemingly boundless voyage of discovery that shifts and alters every time you sit down to listen to it. As much a gateway to the threshold of perception as an album, this intense, imaginative record is not something that you would listen to often, perhaps, but it is a record that will sit quietly within your collection just waiting to transport you to an alternate universe when the need arises.

The album opens with ‘between apes and angels’, the shimmering music initially awash with distorted animal sounds that veer between the hallucinatory and the disquieting. The music, meanwhile, is a mix of bone dry death metal, scorched, hypnotic doom and the endlessly unnerving bad-trip psychedelic rush of latter-day Swans. Harmonised guitars form twisted shapes in the sky, the vocals shift between an eerie Aaron Stainthorpe drawl and a deathly grunt  and the drums operate on a less-is-more basis, providing a solid backbone for the song’s wildly shifting structures without drawing the attention away from the multi-faceted vocal explorations which recall nothing so much as Australian technical death outfit The Alchemist. ‘Prolong the agony’ is a softer work that drifts into beautifully ethereal territory thanks to Phoebe Pinnock’s stunningly whimsical vocal contribution that recalls the twisted majesty of Jarboe on her solo work. There is plenty going on musically too, particularly as the guitars slowly wrap themselves around one another like the cannibal flowers from Pink Floyd’s ‘the wall’, beauty turning in upon itself to become death before the music is stripped down to its core to drift in ambient waters, lulling the listener with its soothing warmth before starting to churn and broil as the guitars return with a vengeance for the final section of the song. It’s difficult… impossible really to describe adequately, so complex and varied is the approach, but the result is a mesmerising assault on the senses that soothes and scars in equal measure.

Having been drawn to the heart of the album, listeners will find themselves trapped within the industrial hell of ‘Seven sisters of sleep’ which draws upon the coruscating power of Swans for a track that stuns, disorientates and, finally, crushes the listener with its juddering, mechanistic percussion and ravaged guitars. It’s doom, but not from this dimension, the hypnotic guitars weaving a silken thread of despair around the listener as the vocals slowly suck the oxygen out of the room. Then, just as hope has been extinguished, ‘the most subtle of storms’ arrives as a glimmer of light. Various vocal effects and intonations are applied over the course of the song’s winding path, giving it a vaguely progressive feel somewhere between Gojira and Ulver – particularly when D’arcy Molan unveils the seductive sound of the saxophone – and the track fades out amidst the sound of lapping water. It’s a surging, epic, beautiful piece of work, as is the entire album, and it is a remarkable experience to allow oneself to be drawn so completely into its wondrous soundscapes. The final track, ‘wailing my keen’ sees the return of Phoebe Pinnock as the band slip effortlessly into gorgeous post-rock territory for a final song that leaves you wanting to stay deep within the album for ever.

Music such as this defies categorisation, defies expectation and, in many ways, defies description. It is simply and unequivocally stunning on every level, the juxtaposition between dark and light occasionally threatens sensory overload as the band draw you ever deeper into their world. This isn’t music for metal fans or for rock fans or anything so compartmentalised: it is music for people who love great, intelligent, imaginative music and offers so much across a wide range of genres that it should be mandatory listening for anyone interested in the creative arts. A mind-blowing achievement it is impossible to recommend this enough.

Doom has ever been one of the more conservative genres of metal – by which I mean its evolution progresses at about the same pace as the average doom riff. With links to the progenitors of the entire music form, Black Sabbath, it is inextricably linked to the past and I always think that has the effect of bringing a certain dogmatic loyalty among doom lovers that borders on being downright stubborn. Don’t get me wrong, I am one of those people. But I sometime feel that bands relentlessly adhere to the script a little too much.

So its been interesting this year to pick up so many albums that have not only continued to fly the flag, and do it very well, but also strike out and chip away at the mould. The latest in the more wayward category is Australian Terry Vainoras and his one man project Subterranean Disposition. The overriding and obvious comparison is My Dying Bride right down to the variety of vocals he throws out but he’s far from a faithful disciple of the band. Vainoras has clearly set out to push the envelope after working with a host of bands over the past twenty years. From death and black metal bands, to goth rock band The Eternal. The variety of his experiences probably explains the breadth of influences on show here. This material was destined for a return visit for one of his earlier collaborations, doom-death band Insomnius Dei, and is pretty much a more finely manicured incarnation.

As with many solo attempts by extreme metal bands the results are refreshingly (if ‘refreshing’ is a word that can be used in a doom context) original and at times verging on the eccentric. Extended ambient passages, saxophones and ethereal female vocals are not the only bit of genre bending Vainoras goes in for (there’s even what I can only describe as a Tori Amos moment on the second track Prolong this Agony). The instant hit is provided by third track Seven Sisters of Sleep with its heavy building guitars but the other tracks are more dissonant, sludgy and gothic. It’s not without its chugging heaviness but at other times more of the swaying variety and others still even sitting in your favourite arm chair, contemplating life with a well stuffed pipe. Final track Wailing My Keen drifts in and out of mellow keyboards but finishes with a nice crushing finale reminding us once and for all that, while this is not a release that is all about the impact of the riff, he can still pull it out of the bag when he wants.

Another decent release from label Hypnotic Dirge and recommended to more adventurous fans of the gothic end of the doom catalogue – even if some others are likely to find this a bit self-contemplative and tough going.