Ringing Bell-Hospital Corners

Unfortuantely, the consistent flow of disgusting death/doomers ceased its effectiveness and perhaps this is because the bands fail to enter the radar of more mainstream audiances. Macabra, Undergand and Funebararum are some of the more prominent names in this disgusting band of glooming brigands, so tell me, what will we make of Ringing Bell? Their acute deliverance of ghastly death/doom falls far beyond perfect, and even short of good, and with such short an EP, I can't really come to a very decisive verdict about the bands overall performance. This is, after all, some decent death/doom, yet for some reason Ringing Bell haven't quite persuaded me to ultimately enjoy their concise effort, even though I have great adoration for the filthy death/doomers of the early 90's.

This EP has all the makings of a common a death/doom record, but there seems to be something missing in all this, mish mash of doomy chord sequences and glooming riffs. The tempo is set perfectly, having a balance between mid-paced stompers and crushing death/doom chompers, but I can't say the same thing about the quality of the riffs which are fit into these tempos. The Ep certainly doesen't boast variation and the riffs don't support one another, and although the music flows viscously, the riffs all follow similar patterns and there is nothing to spice things up, nothing to persuade the listener to hear the same thing again and again. I'm saying, that there's no highlight, no flamboyance or major attraction to pull the listener to it, instead a steady barrage of doom laden death metal riffs, overflowing with filth, corrupted with a fuzzy tone. I have to give the bands some credit for that. The most basic traits of old school death/doom are all here; the fuzzy, murky tone, the undeniable heft and crushing power of the riffs, the vocals, blending in nicely with the stomping heavy riffs in an utterly grotesque way, and there's also a fun amount of Sabbath worshipping riffs as ssen on ''I Am Blessed With The Throt Of French Kings, Encrusted With Golden Bee'', which by the way has a rediculously laughable title.

So, what I'm trying to say here is that this EP is actually quite good, or could be good once it's flourished and decorated with some nice highlights, more intricate riffing and complex song structures-all things that can be done with ease, but concentration. The EP's biggest gap is that it lacks the brooding, sinister and monstrously overwhelming atmosphere of great death/doom records (Anhedonist can be one of the most recent examples), and without good ambiance or atmophere, a death/doom album is almost dead in my eye, yet good thing that many traits of good death/doom has, only spread in a number that is simply not sufficient. I believe that Ringing Bell could move a huge step forward on their next release if they are cunning enough, but for now ''Hospital Corner'' remains as one of the less effective death/doom efforts of the last 5-6 years.

Highlight:
With Positive Actuator To Project And To Retract

Rating: 72%