Subterraen — Rotten Human Kingdom
The album cover is a watercolor painting in a rather casual sketch form. Against the background of clouds or smoke, the dim sun shines, we see the fallen trunk of a tree, going into perspective into these clouds. There are two silhouettes on the tree - a huge deer and a girl looking at the sun. At the bottom center is the bands logo in yellow with a thin black outline. The logo represents stylized Gothic letters combined with some symbols-it’s somewhat old school style, brining to mind doom metal bands of the nineties. The albums title is done in the same style, but in rather simple print, is located just below the logo. Considering the lyrical orientation of the band - environmental and social issues, animal protection and so on - the meaning and idea of the cover are well picked. However, for my taste, the cover is a little messy in terms of color combinations and technically flawed. Perhaps this was the original plan of the artist. Nevertheless, the cover has its own atmosphere and idea, which is an undoubted advantage.
The album is a little less than forty-nine minutes long and consists of four tracks, three of which are quite long. The first track "Blood for the Blood Gods" is almost thirteen and a half minutes long. The second track "For A Fistful Of Silver", previously released on the label's compilation, is fourteen and a half minutes long. The third track"Oceans are Rising" is a sort of acoustic introduction lasting two and a half minutes before the final track "Wrath of a Downtrodden Planet". This track is the longest and runs just under eighteen and a half minutes.
On their debut album, Subterraen present to the listener with a rather diverse sound, densely mixing Funeral Doom and Sludge, with elements of Death Metal. The album features a wall of thick guitar sound with heavy, thundering bass brought out to the middle channel. When working with guitar riffs, the sound is very tight, with very well balanced frequencies. Nevertheless, in my opinion, excessive saturation makes it difficult to clearly hear the riffs, which sometimes turn into something amorphous and are difficult to guess. The sound of the guitar solos seemed to be not very clear and unbalanced, even considering that the very structure of these solo parts is quite simple. I would like to note the good work of the drummer. But, again, it seemed to me that the drum sound sometimes falls into the void due to the density of the guitar sound.
The label describes Subterraen's style as Blackened Sludge / Doom Metal. Which I think this is not entirely true, although the timbre of the vocalist's voice is very reminiscent of the classic Black Metal vocals. And it fits very well with the overall sound of the album. I noticed that this type of vocal is very often used in this style of music lately. The variety of material presented on Rotten Human Kingdom is characterized primarily by a rather interesting approach to compositionality. Several tempo patterns can change in one track, ranging from very slow funeral doom-fragments to high-speed, almost death metal, passages. All this is adjacent to rather gloomy atmospheric acoustic fragments. The album seemed a little uneven to me. So, for example, the combination of very slow and fast parts, as well as some guitar solos, reminded me of the British band Esoteric. Other moments are closer in structure to the Sludge are reminiscent of the Zeni Geva. And some acoustic moments brought to mind Neurosis. These are undoubtedly great role models. However, something went wrong. I listened to the album several times and could not get into its spirit. It seemed to me that the album lacks originality. Rotten Human Kingdom doesn't directly copy the bands mentioned, however, it tries to imitate them, doing it, in my opinion, not at the highest level. I think for a listener who is not very familiar with such styles as Funeral Doom and Sludge, this album will be a revelation. But for a fan who has been listening to this type of music for a long time, Subterraen's debut album will not be any special event. Nevertheless, for the debut album it is quite a good start that deserves some attention.