Opinions on Blood Ceremony ?

I thought they were real popular but the feedback coming into Doommantia has been 95% negative. I am really surprised.

P.S - I even had to delete one comment because the dude's hatred of the band crossed the line into real vulgar put-downs lol.

Ed, where are people posting on here about the new album?

Go to http://www.doommantia.com/2011/03/blood-ceremony-living-with-ancients.html

I just started this thread to see what reactions turn up here. On Doommantia so far its been 13 negative vs only 2 positive comments but I also had to delete some negative comments as people were getting stupid.

I've never heard them. I'll make it a point to check them out today. What kind of Doom are they?

OK, I've check them out and its not bad. Not as heavy as I'd like but not bad. I hear one part 70's Judas Priest, one part Black Sabbath and one part Jex Thoth. They are very 60's but without as much psychedelia. The flute work is good but I got burned out on flute after listening to Ashes You Leave - The Inheritance of Sin and Shame.

Somebody just posted a comment saying 95% of people are dumbasses so that should start a shoit-storm lol. Every now and then comes a album that stirs up debates but I didn't expect it happen with Blood Ceremony.

Totally, they really aren't a band I can see that happening too.

Blood Ceremony are not bad, but on the other hand, they are not that good either. I don't think that the songwriting is that memorable. Most of the times, I find it a bit generic. The vocals are not that great either, however I do enjoy the instrumental parts, especially if the keys or the flute come front stage.

As for the hate they seem to receive, what can I say? Maybe people disagree with the band's choice of label or style. I believe that Rise Above and Occult Heavy Rock are considered rather "trendy:" among the "true" circles.

I really dig the new album. I think its got a much older feel to it than the debut. And i think Alia's vocals are a lot stronger on Living with the Ancients. Is it flawless, of course not. But i really enjoy the album as a whole. I agree the occult rock thing is a trend right now (which is a good thing in my opinion), but i think they sound different from the Sabbath clones out there. As far as female vocals, i think they are hit or miss, just like any other vocalist.

Quote:

I must admit, I never really understood what is so great about these female-fronted retro-doom bands like Blood Ceremony, Jex Thoth etc. I think they are alright bands but some people really go nuts over that style. To me most of it is generic and recycled Sabbath riffs with cheesy occult-rock lyrics. I also remember getting a lot of flak over a review I did for the first Blood Ceremony album especially from Canadians who seem to think they are the one of the best bands to ever emerge from that country. I have never been a big fan of female singers in doom anyway. I don't think it usually suits the style but there is a couple of exceptions.

Perhaps, fans of this music enjoy those elements that seem to put you off, namely retro sound, female vocals and B-movie Satan Worship, without caring about the lackluster songwriting. Lovers of style over substance, if you ask me.

However, there are indeed decent Doom Metal bands out there, with females on vocal duties. Rituals of the Oak come to mind, as well as the disbanded Mourn. Any others?

i like Alunah, Acid King, Wooden Stake (death doom). Good doom bands. The River are good too. Old Serpentcult as well.

I'd take Blood Ceremony's singer over Jex Thoth hands down. I liked Serpent Cults vocalist too. But good question, what is with all the retro female fronted Doom bands lately?

Let's not forget Runnhild Gammelsaeter's brutal growls mixed with haunting cleans on Thorr's Hammer's Dommedagsnatt, some of the best female fronted doom ever IMO.

Obviously, but I wasn't the first to bring up non-traditional doom, as Wooden Stake was mentioned prior to my post. I was making a comment about female fronted doom, not the latest craze of having female fronted throwback doom/psychedelic/occult/rock bands in your playlist.

Like I said there is some exceptions. The ones mentioned by everyone here are good examples of female vocalists, traditional or not. I am just saying in the sense of retro, occult, proto-metal, call it whatever you want doom, it is very predictable at the moment. You can just look at the promo pics and you automatically know what they are going to sound like.

Wooden Stake are one of the very rare exceptions, they cover the retro thing too but they also have a NWOBHM, Black and Death metal influences going on. Plus Vanessa doesn't have that monotone vocal that most of these bands have, she actually has a vocal range. I do like Blood Ceremony's and Jex Thoth's vocals but only in small doses, a whole album of it gets a bit tedious to me.

I like some of Blood Ceremony's stuff. Not a real big fan but can get into some of it. Same with Jex Thoth, I really like a few of the tracks a lot and the rest I can do without.

Anneke Van Giersbergen and her first two releases with The Gathering, excellent Trad Doom!

Great live band.

If you hate Blood Ceremony and such, you'll hate UZALA as well.

www.myspace.com/uzaladoom

UNJOY!

I don't hate Blood Ceremony at all, the main 2 elements that get to me is the kind of monotone vocals that they have and the flute. Both sound good for a few songs and after that, it gets tedious to me. I have nothing against the flute by the way, early Jethro Tull is one of the favorite bands for example but I just think she doesn't do anything particularly interesting with it. I will say though I think they are better than Jex Thoth, now that band really gets on my nerves very quickly.

I remember the fuss about their first record. From the description people pinned on the album it sounded like something I'd enjoy, but I just couldn't get into it at all. I think I did like 3 attempts or something, but I could never get further than a couple of tracks in.
I have heard the new album, and I do think it's a lot better than their first. I even listened to the new one multiple times, even though not all tracks are equally good.
There are moments when everything comes together, but there's a bunch of rather generic moments as well. I should probably listen to it again to fully form an opinion on it, but from what I remember I would give the album a score around 7 or 7.5 out of 10.

As for the discussion about female fronted retro doom, I haven't really heard that many. Sure, most people know Jex Thoth, Blood Ceremony, The Devil's Blood, and stuff like that. But I don't think I could name more than 10. The handful of this type of band does seem to be hyped a lot for it's "unique" vocals.
Personally I enjoy some Jex Thoth every once and a while (although it depends from track to track, but I like stuff like The Banishment, Seperated At Birth, etc.). I really like the sound of The Devil's Blood, but I'm not too keen on the vocals. It's a shame really, since the album starts off with an absolute killer riff, and the album closes with the extremely enjoyable solo of "The Anti-Kosmik Magick".
Although perhaps a little farfetch'd in a doom metal discussion, has anyone heard anything by Rose Kemp? Absolutely no idea what genre you would label that, but some of it is pretty doomy in the same vein as abovementioned bands..

It looks like we are on the same page, Jort. One of the issues I have is I am not and never have been a big fan of female singers. Don't know why but there has been very few that I can handle. Oddly enough in metal, I think I dislike them the most. I know this sounds sexist but I really don't think female vocals works in metal but that is just my opinion.

Yep, I agree with everything you said and a thread on singers like you suggested would be a good idea. I think more than anything else, the quality of vocalists have slipped dramatically in the last 20 years.

I think Blood Ceremony are a alright band but overrated. I saw them live and wasn't too impressed. People think that being from Canada means that I would like them but I just think they are alright, nothing more. Much better bands in Canada in my opinion.

Love Blood Ceremony & Jex Thoth. Was a bit underwhelmed at first by the new Blood Ceremony but it's grown on me and i really like it a lot now. Less riffy then the first but it kind of appeals to me more after a number of listens.

The same thing happened to me too, I only liked about half of the latest album at first but now the other songs are growing on me. I still say they are overrated but the album gets better with each spin.

Well like i said i really like them and relative to some other great bands they probably are a little overrated or over-hyped but i think that mainly comes with being a "Rise Above" band. I have a similar feeling about Ghost who i also really like.

Ghost are another band that I didn't like much at first either but now I am digging their album a little more. I kind of wish I have had waited on that review I did for them. I re-read it and I think totally differently now.

I played one of their songs for my dad thinking he might like them. All he said was "this is a ripoff Jethro Tull with a girl singing"....I don't think he got where they were coming from, lol.