It is not very often that I have a pleasure of listening to a French doom metal. Fatum Elisum is the moniker of this doom & death metal French quintet from Rouen. Let there be said immediately; these guys have produced a very good piece of work with their self-titled debut Homo Nihilis and its five lengthy tracks.

Homo Nihilis opens with an atmospheric and perfectly balanced intro followed by some chilling chants on “Pulvis et Umbra Sumus”, which can almost serve as an intro for a horror movie.  Soon after it is followed by another strong song named “Pursuit of Sadness”, which is one of the most doomish and misanthropic tracks on this record.

“The Twilight Prophet” is the middle track and it is maybe the most boring track off the album. It is mainly due to the fact that it clocks at over 20 minutes, which is far too long even for a doom metal song. Secondly, because there’s a very little variation and dynamics into the song, one almost fall asleep while listening to this uninspiring song.

It gets slightly better on a self-titled “Homo Nihilis”, which is done in a more traditional and standard doom metal manner, reminding me of other major European doomish acts. The only cons I can hear are the vocals of the band’s mastermind EndE, being inconsistent and repetitive, although growling and moaning. The album closer is also one of the absolute album highlights; a track called “East Of Eden”.

Homo Nihilis was after all a pleasant four-epic length journey from the soul of mankind, discovering both the desolation and the glory. The only hope for their next release I have is that they work on new techniques and include more diversity and variation, esp. in the vocal parts.

Recommended for fans of Black Sabbath, My Dying Bride, Mourning Beloveth, Cathedral and similar genre heroes and esp. if you're a fan of doom metal in some capacity, I think you'll find something you'll like on this debut opus by Fatum Elisum.

Contact info: http://fatumelisum.bigcartel.com/


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