2012 did not offer a huge variety of doom metal, and thus you could say that I was excited before I gave this a listen. Admittedly, I haven't listened to any doom this year other then Anguish's magnificent album, which is could easily fit in the best doom metal albums of the year list. Now Anguish showed pure old school tendencies and elements carved deeply into their music while Demon Lung come with a different style. Indeed I was exppecting straight, glooming doom metal but ''Pareidolia'' introduced some aspects leaning on a more crushing, thrashy side, particularly more modern as well. And with the female vocals to top it off, I was in for an interesting experience, though not necessarily one that would sink its hooks into my flesh too deep.
The guitar riffs are vociferous and very loud, at times loud enough to enshadow the drums and the vocals. I must say that I don't quite enjoy this tone to its fullest because with even strokes dividing the riffs as they monotonously swagger, the tone drowns and pullutes the rest of the riffs. I enjoy the more clean, less distorted tone applied to my doom metal and the tone here is quite the opposite, just chunky and murky, something that annoyes me more than you would think. And the riffs aren't that doomy either, simply because they mostly channel in and out between mid-paced chompers. The music is just too crushing to be called doom metal and the atmopshere is rendered almost destroyed. Palm mutes are common aspects on this album, and to be honest, they don't compliment the music any better, chunky mid-paced riffage is better done with faster drumming and in addtion to that the usage of pinch harmonics irritates me everytime it's used. Perhaps I would have approved some of the music if it had some deviation, but even the originality department is futile, and I would have awarded the EP a few points ven if it sounded bad while experimenting. The execution of the vocal delivery is the only thing that deserves good approval. The vocalist attains an Ozzy Osbourne sound and her vocals are strong, despite the fact that they are shadowed by the irritative assault of the riffs. Her voice soars with strict accent and tone and all the delivery is robust.
Well, the EP overall has a number of flaws and the most crucial is attaining the old school doom metal tone, absolutely vital in order to create a good doom album. The album just loses accuracy when focusing too much on the guitar tone, so the rest of the instrumentation drowns easily. Fortunately, the vocal delivery is a fair enough highlight and something which is needs to be the spot-on feature of the album. Aspects are rather drudging and interminable and the riffs need much more spunk than they already have. And yes these gaps are not to be redeemed so efficiently, but overall ''Pareidolia'' is far from the worst.
Highlights:
Death Mask
Rating: 74%
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