Evangelist – Ad Mortem Festinamus (Renaissance Doom Metal)

 

This was certainly not what I expected at all but man did my general surprise turn into feelings of excitement, love, obsession, and pretty much lust. I’d marry these guys and find a way to bear their children, and their children’s children, and so on. I’d declare dual-citizenship and when asked “why do you want to be a citizen of Poland?” I’d just show the Evangelist shirt I was wearing, the state official would nod and sign the papers without question. Why? Because Evangelist playing within a kind of a genre you didn’t even know existed and their desire to destroy modernism and restore tradition has been sufficiently fulfilled.

   

Phew, this be a good one. The cover suggests blackened death metal, death metal, black metal, something to that effect, but neither those, nor the sad tag of “epic doom metal” on Metallum are a proper explanation of Ad Mortem Festinamus, listed online as an “EP” (lol), but clearly over 30 minutes. Evangelist display some important differences from the usual doom crud with their bardic, layered vocals, slow, funeral-like passages, beautiful solos, and themes that focus on medieval Christianity without cliché. Their style is perhaps better titled “Renaissance doom,” if that could be said, but with elements of power metal, heavy metal, and other foundational genres Evangelist prove exceedingly difficult for even the most experienced critic to truly describe. They simply must be experienced.

 

Evangelist Official Facebook

Written by Stanley, Devourer of Souls

Evangelist – Ad Mortem Festinamus
Nine Records

Cover Art: Diego Spezzoni
4.8 / 5