An Unnatural Concept ... And it's Immaculate.

Paramaecium is a damn good doom/death metal band and one of my all around favourite groups. "Exhumed Of The Earth" is their first full length release and is more death than doom. The future releases use less death growls and more tenor like clean male vocals and this increases the doom feel.

The album starts off with ... yes ... the 17 minute epic "The Unnatural Conception: The Birth and Massacre of the Innocence" which tells of Christ's birth and Herod's attempt to kill the new born king. After a short soprano vocal intro by Rosemary Sutton which powers into a heavy chunky guitar riff which goes on for about 4 minutes with a little operatic vocals interspersed (I'll love the operatic vocals and good chunky guitars and Paramaecium is a master at it). Then comes in the death metal growls which are a little more distorted than future releases, but still enjoyable. Andrew Tompkins
vocals have a sort of gurgly feel to them which makes his voice unique and recognizable. Here the guitars carry a doomy feel. Then there is a bridge which brings back the female vocals and a violin solo that gives the tune a real eeriness. We hear a baby crying amongst the music and the song takes on a kind of lamenting lullaby sound. Although the song is 17 min. it grabs from the beginning and holds you throughout.

"Injudicial" and "Untombed" speed things up a bit, but still retain their slow doomy riffs. "Injudicial" has a nice death metal riff as well. "The Killing" slows down into a dark and doomy mood and incorporates a nice flute solo. "The voyage of the Severed" is sludgy but ends with an uplifting guitar solo.


The last 2 tracks give us a glimpse of where Paramaecium is heading. "Heamorrhage Of Hatred" is diverse in tempo and enhances the doom feel with clean male vocals. This trend continues to the last song "Removed Of The Grave" though the clean vocals are female tenor like and almost spoken. A very nice sound. This song also begins with an acoustic intro that brings a doomy folk sound that is nice.

Paramaecium are epic in their song writing and thought provoking with their lyrics. All I can say is this is great Doom/Death Metal. Both dark and uplifting. Next I'll review the Christian Thrash band Tourniquet who garnered quite a following. And why not. They are great. Up next ... "Microscopic View Of A Telescopic Realm"