Substance for God (ISR) - Assembly Of Flowers

Full-length, BNE Records
1994

1		The Love I've Bereaved (5:01)
2		The Swan Song (5:29)
3		Memorial Prayer (7:15)
4		Behind The Wreath (7:58)
5		Verse Of Sorrow (5:27)
6		Assembly Of Flowers (5:15)
7		Crowned Illusion (6:14)
8		The Promise (1:46)

Origin:Israel
Genre:Death / Doom Metal
Bitrate: 192kbps

WELL I BEEN LOOKING FOR THIS ALBUM FOR LONG TIME AGO A FRIEND MINE OF ISRAEL SEND IT TO ME THIS BAND KICK ASS I HOPE YOU LIKE IT

When listening to Substance of God the names of other bands always start popping up in my head. Perhaps because I do not know much about this Israeli band? I can't say. But the names that pop up are anything but what you would expect. Yes, Substance of God play Death/Doom metal but names like My Dying Bride or Anathema are not the bands they remind me off.

The first two names to pop into my head are believe it or not grind Doomsters Visceral Evisceration and "We're not Goth"-rock band The Sisters of Mercy! When accompanied by grunts the slow slightly muffled music and vocals can easily be compared to Visceral but of course without the silly lyrics (or the more up-tempo parts). The clean vocals and the accompanying music however immediately remind me of The Sisters of Mercy ('First and Last and Always') right down to the same weeping vocal style. Other band names to go through my head are early Paradise Lost ('Lost Paradise'/'Gothic' area) and Joy Division.

Substance for God does not really copy any of these bands, it rather creates an odd combination between the feel of 80ties goth music and early nineties death/doom. And due to the low production the entire album gets a very muffled and "far away" sound. This helps to create a very uncomfortable atmosphere. So despite the goth influences do not expect anything mellow or melodic here. This is primarily something for people who enjoyed death/doom released during the early nineties but are not looking for "yet another run of the mill band".

While not run of the mill, don't expect a masterpiece here either. Most of the songs sound slightly bland and do not grasp you as any of the aforementioned bands do. Somehow they just lack that - be it very different from one and other - painful edge of those bands. Also the sometimes-sporadic use of female vocals is something they for me could have left off. They don't naturally fit into the songs and it feels like they have been forced in compositions that would have been better off without them. The sporadic use of piano and flute (or flutelike sounds) is nice though. All in all a nice album to expand an already large Death/Doom collection but not something to put on the top of your want list if your just starting to build a collection.

Myspace:
http://www.geocities.com/israeliscene/substance.html
http://www.doom-metal.com/bandlist_entry.php?id=244
http://www.lastfm.es/music/Substance+for+God


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