Apostle Of Solitude - From Gold To Ash album review

Formed in 2004 by The Gates Of Slumber’s first skinbasher, Chuck Brown – here on vocals and guitar – Apostle Of Solitude have since flown under the radar, and you can understand why by listening to their sophomore album. While it’s already somewhat questionable to start off your new set of seven songs with not one but two instrumentals in a row, it’s really this Indianapolis-based fourpiece’s incapacity to fully achieve their goals that ultimately drags them down. They’re rooted in classic doom metal and even have two vocalists, but neither of them have the melodramatic pipes of, say, Messiah Marcolin, nor are they flexible enough to allow them to follow Pallbearer’s example and manoeuvre gracefully throughout the many attempted melodic passages. Besides, the actual doom parts simply aren’t that gripping enough, proof that it takes more than playing slow and sounding miserable to truly be born too late.