AraPacis - Reviews of Déjà Doom

Self produced, at Arapacis Studios, 2017-2018, by Jerry Fielden, brand-new offering ‘Deja Doom’, from Arapacis, is a 4 track EP, minimally mastered, to maintain originality of sound.

Artwork also by Jerry Fielden, except for the front cover, by Shelle Macpherson.

Consequences Of Dreams – Very bass heavy intro, Sab-esque, ‘Iron Man’ like drum sound and a clear doom overtone. Unusually refreshing feminine vocals, revealing a gothic edge and a notably pleasant sharpness to the lyrics. An audibly effective stripped back sound to the accompaniments, bringing a freedom within it. Surprising gore vocal finale, adding another angle. Generally, it’s a novel approach, making for a versatile outcome and a comfortable listen. Relieving, even.

Drop Of Hope – Great exciting whammy style vibrato riffing opening! Truly original. Again, the acuity of those vocals gets straight into it, bringing in an unexpectedly grimy edge to the line endings. A really colourful, multifaceted approach to the guitar work in here, incorporating a combo of wobble, paradiddles, twiddly fret styles and straight out, sharpened metal riffs. Taking it up and bringing it down, in all the right places, considering that this is a more basic work, it still includes a lot of variety and if anything, opens it up, becoming all the more freestyle for it.

The Green Fairy – Good, clear, confident drum intro, asserting its place and creating a darker sound, together with the bass. The low, rumbling heaviness of the latter accentuates the pointedness of the vocals, admirably. A decent mixture of well timed gory darkness and sweetness of light peppers those lyrics and a simple, but intensely focused bass line rhythm provides the core. Ironically intriguing sound, given the title, but all aspects are audible, through the changes in melody, tone and cadence. Even visual, to some extent. Ending on a simple section and a lighter feel, the imagery’s best evoked here.

End Of The Line – A lighter sense to this intro, combining heavy and light percussion, with a softer melody. Vocally softer aswell. More of a mellow tone, generally, yet still incorporating some heavier elements, in places. Interestingly fulsome sound, given it’s built around a more basic structure. Quite laid-back atmosphere, generally, throwing in a few electrifyingly lively riffs here and there. That’s the hand of experience coming out in that riffage. It’s automatically audible. Far more instrumental basis within here, but the vocals are no less powered, for that. In fact, that voice does horror metal well. A well-rounded track, covering all angles.

Overall – An all-round, relaxed, laissez faire approach to an EP, of quality, rather than quantity, which still eclectically performed, delivers some novel methods and unique features, within capable, accomplished hands.

9/10 *********

For fans of Vampyre Heart, Voodoo Blood and Kyuss.

http://www.arapacis.rocks/
https://www.instagram.com/arapacismtl/

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ARAPACIS,, DEJA DOOM, EP, 2018 1 post • Page 1 of 1
femmepower
Posts 475
Contributor
June 6th, 2018, 7:42 am #1

ARAPACIS DEJA DOOM EP, BLACKHOUSE RECORDS JUNE 2018

Mixed and mastered by Jerry Fielden at Arapacis Studios 2017/2018.

ARAPACIS are a female fronted Doom/Progressive/Hard Rock/Classic Rock band hailing from Montreal, Canada

ARAPACIS EP LINE UP.

SHELLE 'STRANGE' MACPHERSON, VOCALS.
JERRY FIELDEN, LEAD GUITAR, BASS.

GUEST.
MATHIEU ROY, DRUMS.

1. CONSEQUENCES OF DREAMS: - We are off and running in a heavy doom influenced sludge fest, dark and gloomy with infectious guitar work and a thudding drum beat. Shelle enters the scene snarling and spitting as she gets into her nasty groove, adding some satanesque evil growls among her addictive, scary vocals. This is a pretty heavy doom laden attack that grates on your bones with saw edged teeth. Jerry's guitar work and solos are sublime as well as providing earthy droning bass lines whilst Mathieu's drums pound away, pulverizing your brain cells. This is a quagmire of impending doom and Shelle's chilling vocals. Brilliant stuff.

RUNNING TIME: - 6.13 MINS.

2. DROP OF HOPE: - In reality there is no hope in this number as it drags you into another doom laden dark landscape. Mind bending guitars lead us into the void. There are plenty of old school vibes in this number, which is deep, heavy and highly addictive. Shelle is on top form and uses a variety of vocal tones that send little chills up your spine, in places.Superb bass lines and guitar work from Jerry as the number engulfs you. There is no escaping the rumbling doom that pulsates through every vein of the track. A slow and deliberate attack that smothers you with its blackness. Super.

RUNNING TIME: - 6.12 MINS.

3. THE GREEN FAIRY: - Old school heavy rock vibes intertwined with modern doom sounds and dark auras are the flavour once again in this number. Shelle really shines as she lets rip with some very effective vocals, like some evil High Priestess, snarling and growling one minute, then some haunting angelic style vocals the next as she keeps you in her grasp sacrificing your soul to the highly infectious droning doom laden beat. This is a scary, nasty, mind altering attack to your senses as the whole number reaches deep into the recesses of the darkest part of your mind whilst churning up your guts at the same time. Jerry excellent guitar playing toys around with you with ease, whilst Mathieu's solid, heavy thudding drum beat drags you further down into the abyss the number has created. This is a track that will destroy your soul and will leave you as an empty shell. A classy throbbing affair.

RUNNING TIME: - 8.06 MINS.

4. END OF THE LINE: - This one starts with some pretty interesting guitar work that has melodic flavours. The number ignites slowly as Shelle comes into play with her unique vocals, and begins to take command, tempting you further into the blackness. This is a strange affair that twists and turns, not as heavy or earthy as in previous numbers, but has its own identity as it invades your mind with subtle dark doom colours. The underlying menacing thread is there throughout, making you stay on alert waiting for an unexpected forceful surge to come forth and smash you to pieces. You coast along with the number with trepidation of what might be round the corner. The track has a slight dark progressive feel to it in places. The number is pretty creepy throughout with its slow and methodical pace, with every component fitting together. Jerry produces very neat stonking guitar solos in the latter stages, along side throbbing bass lines and pounding drum beats. Shelle produces some really nasty snarls here and there, particularly at the end and her claws were sharp all the way through. A highly addictive doom track that is a bit different in context.

RUNNING TIME: - 12.08 MINS.

OH YEAH, This really is mind numbing doom attack indeed. ARAPACIS have once again delivered the goods. This time they have taken 4 tracks from their back catalogue, tracks 1 and 3 from 'Consequences Of Dreams' track 2 from their debut album 'So Many Leapers' and track 4 from 'Netherworld', and given them a new lease of life with a heavy 'n' hard doom makeover. Does it work,'oh boy oh boy' does it work, yes it certainly does. This is a fucking heavy delight, a dreadnought of impending doom that ploughs a furrow through your system. Nothing fancy just brain crushing soul destroying DOOM that will leave you panting for more. The main core of the band is the duo of Shelle and Jerry while mainly using guest musicians for their last few albums , this EP and live shows, does not affect the growing ability of the band, they just keep getting better and better and deliver quality music. LOVE THEM. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED...10/10

femmepower@BlackPhoenixRising

'DEJADOOM' EP CAN BE PRE-ORDERED FROM http://blackhouseinc.storenvy.com/

https://www.facebook.com/AraPacis/

The Metal Mag 6 August 2018 Editor Reviews

Arapacis : “Déjà Doom” CD 1 Digital 2017-2018 Blackouse Records in the USA.

Quebec Metal band. Jerry Fielden and his wife Shelle Macpherson are back with an album once again with out of time creativity. For those who don’t know them yet, they are from a country where French and English languages are commonly used. Hence the album with a French title “Déjà Doom” meaning Already Doom.

This album is a mix of four tracks re-worked with a Doomy atmosphere and feel. Yet once again they are mixing Metal styles with melodic voices as shredded ones. Cool guitar parts and riffs remembering sometimes the earliest Death Metal bands such as Morgoth, sometimes reminding Black Sabbath down tuned heavy riffs. For those into Doom Metal style you will get many influences from Candelmass etc…

The melodic voice from Shelle brings back to those new melodic bands in the same vein that is this music style such as The Oath , now Lucifer are the bands who are getting inspired by those seventies tunes. You might even think of Pink Floyd for a moment.

The Drummer is Mathieu Roy and rocks it all, Jerry playing solos that are not the big ones of todays bands but still gives a cool touch to the whole songs. You probably wonder how this can be an album with only four songs? Well the length of those are giving you a 32 minutes of joy and happiness for your ears!

“The Green Fairy” has a bit of tunes like Within Temptation feel with the melodies parts yet those bands are just influences that pop into my mind while listening this enchanting four piece album. This is really tripping as some would say. The last song “End of the Line” is the longest one that last twelve minutes. But you won’t realise such it flows nicely into your ears and sent you into a peace world.

A little taste :

Arapacis has its own world and it feels good, believe me when you press play the band will take you to another horizon. Their variations will help anyone to dig their music and get lots of Metalheads fans. So hurry up to their site and listen up then buy the album 99/100.

https://www.themetalmag.com/arapacis-deja-doom-cd-1-digital-2017-2018-blackouse-records-in-the-usa/

ARAPACIS-Deja Doom (Blackhouse Records)
ARAPACIS has become a well-known name over the years for Metal Maidens. The title of this four track EP already reveals something from the music style that we are about to hear. Mind you, ARAPACIS hasn't suddenly become a black souled slow paced doom metal outfit, but their music is a bit more heading into that direction. The four songs are worthy of around thirty minutes of music, which isn't just value for money, but it also shows that there are some lengthy workouts to be discovered here. The EP starts off with the six minute plus opener "Consequences Of Dreams". There may not be too many female fronted doom metal bands out there, but Shelle Macpherson really knows to hit those notes right. She doesn't only have a nice crystal clear voice, but she also knows how to growl and scream, which is quite essential for this type of music. Jerry Fielden's guitar riffs might be a bit slower here, but they have a lot of emotion, which is a very important factor for doom metal. You just need to feel the pain and the sorrow and he does it exactly right. However, the second six minutes plus song sounds even better in my opinion and it leaves a huge impression on me. The BLACK SABBATH and CATHEDRAL type of instrumental part in the middle gives this song just the right sauce, that it needs to reach far above average. The high vocal lines of Shelle are right the opposite of the low tones that Jerry spreads out and because of that they keep each other in balance. "Drop Of Hope" is indeed a drop of hope for those who thought that doom metal was as dead as a doornail. "The Green Fairy" is just over eight minutes and as the title already suggests, it contains some fairy tale type of vocals by Shelle, but that's only in the beginning, because that will soon change into a more witches kind of sound. It must be said, that ARAPACIS definitely cranks out these doomy tracks in a very authentic way. Names like CANDLEMASS or COVEN could be used as a reference here and I can definitely recommend this EP to all die hard dark doomsters out there, because the high level of the aforementioned bands is definitely reached here. The cherry on the cake is the twelve minute plus "End Of The Line". You can feel the sadness and the sorrow in this song and on top of this all, there is this flaming guitar explosion that will surely give you wings. In your thoughts you can fly to the end of the line after this. The doomy riffs are drenched into subtleness and they bring doom metal back to its roots. You can only understand this when you've reached the end of the line. It's there after thirty minutes or something and I've loved every single second of it. Over the years, ARAPACIS have truly impressed me by doing so many different music styles and with "Deja Doom", they did it again, for I'd never expected that they would deliver a doom metal EP. And I'm so glad that they did it. They even adjusted the artwork to the music style. The bird on the tree (I think, it's a raven) is a very doomy pic to use. Now you know that the sun will never shine again. ARAPACIS consists of Shelle Macpherson on vocals and Jerry Fielden on instruments. Visit the band's facebook page at: http://www.facebook.com/arapacis or the official Arapacis website at http://www.arapacis.com. [9 points] (Toine van Poorten)

Arapacis – ‘Deja Doom’