THE WOUNDED KINGS – The Shadow Over Atlantis

Taken from the legends of King Arthur as the guardian of the Holy Grail and the bearer of the suffering of his kingdom, there you have the Fisher King, also known as The Wounded King.
The name, Wounded Kings, was a well-chosen name for the English band from Dartmoor. Inspired by England’s history with occult and with inner human spirits, the duo of The Wounded Kings brought on the abnormal. Their dependence on the musical psychedelic nature of the 70s along with the first wave of horrific, gloomy and dark Heavy Metal, created the utterly slow traditional Doom Metal Theater.

The duo, Steve Mills and George Birch, formulated the project in 2005. The two debuted their first work, Embrace Of The Narrow House, two years ago under Eichenwald Industries. This year, after sinking deeper into the undying stories of Edgar Allen Poe, Dante’s Inferno and Milton’s Paradise Lost, The Shadow Over Atlantis was born. With the birth of the new album, came the rebirth of Atlantis’s demise, the dawning of humanity and spirituality’s end. With the album’s release, the pair signed with the Swedish I Hate Records and brought up two new members to the band.

This new doomy presentation is just what original Doom Metal is, sluggish, dark, and ominous. The Wounded Kings tendered their music with simple/repeating open chord riffs in order to shape their foggy atmosphere of fear, emptiness and silent paranoia. With those riffs, other faithless ingredients were dispatched. The affectionate lead guitar strokes filled with delay and echo effects, piano verses and eerie choirs were added in order to let the sorrow and undoubting be submerged into the listener’s brain for further thinking. The Shadow Over Atlantis has its way to stimulate emotions and one’s awareness to rather negative sensations. In general, it made its purpose. However, when it came down to the music, maybe things could have gone well for the English band.

Traditional Doom Metal, derived from NWOBHM, as a dark form of classic Metal, is a sort of music to be made with care. The Wounded Kings did take care of their Doom, yet, not because of the length of the tracks. They could have kicked in a bit more energy and maybe some versatility. The Shadow Over Atlantis is different from other Doom albums as old Black Sabbath’s Master Of Reality, Candlemass’ Epicus Doomicus Metalicus and even The Wounded King’s label mates, The Gates Of Slumber and others. The addition of Psychedelic music to their equation changed everything, however, not always for the greater good.

The fact is that after many spins of the six tracked album, it is hard not to recognize that many moments of the tracks, especially the empty moments with lead riffages or vocals, are plain boring. The Wounded Kings, as an English band from a country that Metal sat on its lap as a toddler, should have taken a different route when it came to 70s influenced Psychedelic compositions. It is not bothersome that some of the tracks last almost more than ten minutes long, and one could live with the steady cold vocals, it is the fact that they share boredom on occasions.

With no doubt, there is a sort of mystery and interest behind the curtains of The Shadow Over Atlantis, especially when it comes to tracks as “Baptism Of Atlantis” and “Invocation Of The Ancients”. Those two, however having dead parts, have many great qualities of good Doom songs. Without the doomy melodies as the songs’ saviors, it would have been another dull memento. The former of the two, is the best track The Wounded Kings could muster of this release. The latter, as a closer, sums up the album with impressive lead guitar melodies that leaves the ears with a good taste.

Besides the long epics, The Wounded Kings made great intros of pure harmonics and breathtaking enchanters. “Into the Ocean’s Abyss” and “Deathless Echo” play their parts amazingly and serve, besides being intros, as quality instrumentals.

For Doom Metal fans, this album is a charmer; however, it would be very difficult to bear if this one isn’t your flavor. Nevertheless, The Shadow Over Atlantis is a very notable dark story of humanity’s watery grave. Do not live in fear just yet. Just take a listen to the story.