VILLAGE OF DEAD ROADS

Erie, Pennsylvania's VILLAGE OF DEAD ROADS sure left a lasting impression on fans and reviewers alike with its marginally tripped out and crushingly heavy brand of doom on the "Human Failures" split with SPIRITU. Those brimming with anticipation for the band's follow-up full-length will not be disappointed with "Dwelling in Doubt".

"Dwelling in Doubt" is at its core a doom album, but one that incorporates just enough ISIS-isms to keep the listener's attention, all the while doing so without elongating its compositions to the point of tedium. An edgy and angry delivery that emphasizes the riff and is powered by thunderous drumming ensures that heaviness remains at the forefront. A full, scathing vocal approach pulls several tunes toward the sludgier end of doom, giving that much more bite to the compositions. In some cases, such as "Fugitive", it is simply a case of an ominous riff and a mid-tempo funeral march. Songs like "Professing to be Wise" add lighter moments with the abrasive crawl and toss in unsettling clean vocals. The ISIS-istic and NEUROSIS-esque moments color other tracks, including the classic dirge and dissonance of "Hemingway Solution". The bizarre sound collages of "Abjection" and "Objection" put a chill in the air. Eight-minute album closer "Cold New World" combines light, creepy guitar and clean vocals with bottom-feeding crunch and vocal agony. All of it is filling; none of it results in bloated regret.

And though there is something to be said about lyrics that hover above the obvious and that exorcise demons through clever metaphor, dumping a big bucket of gloom at one's feet without beating around the bush has its meritorious qualities too. Examples abound on "Dwelling in Doubt". Take "Fugitive" for example: "Adelaide, did I help tie the noose around your neck? / I can't apologize through six feet of dirt." Or how about "Professing to be Wise" for lyrics that get right to the point? "Washed away and forgotten / into the black tide / Every cell of our being / is doomed to expire." And then there is "Blind Albino" with these graphic lines: "A cold, loveless fuck / on the tile floor / stripped of emotion / we crawl on all fours."

Such images hang loosely together without the soundtrack to 10 tons of misery and raw human emotion. VILLAGE OF DEAD ROADS does enough on "Dwelling in Doubt" to carve out a small niche in the doom community. The album does not equate to a watershed moment for the genre, but it is a robust effort that dedicated fans will appreciate and newcomers will find refreshing for its flavorful style.