Inherent Doom – Sermon of Ruin
As someone from the Middle-East as well, listening to a black metal band from this region is always exciting and interesting. I think what people who love black metal see and experience in their surroundings adds a unique flavor to the music they play. Inherent Doom, a new black metal band formed in 2021, is from Tehran (although they later moved to the US) and just released their debut album, Sermon of Ruin, recently.
Their black metal strongly embraces the genre’s anti-religious perspective, with a harsh critique of Islam and its distorted practices, both past and present. The band focuses on the cultural, spiritual, social, and political devastation caused by religious imperialism, and even mournes for it. Their compositions are well-balanced, reflecting a melancholic nostalgia for the past while channeling a profound anger for the present.
While the songs are generally quite melodic and often driven by mid-tempo rhythms, you can find a lot of interesting details. These include powerful bass lines (Chaos of Innocents), almost djent-like rhythms (Eastern Mills), and slow, downtempo sections that approach a dsbm-level of melancholic gloom (Corrupted Depression). Inherent Doom sounds like a self-aware and capable band; you can sense their confident musicianship even after just a single spin of Sermon of Ruin. Besides, Forgotten Heritage‘s lyrics are written in 3 languages: Latin, English, And Avesta (the forgotten ancient language of Persia). And the song Desolation of the Wise is some kind of a musical dialectic with Omar Khayyam. Definetely interesting stuff.
Inherent Doom shows potential with it debut and I’m excited about a black metal band purely focusing on Islam, rather than Christianity or pagan stuff. I’ve added their name to my list and follow their future endeavours closely.
