Doom Side of the Moon – Doom Side of the Moon

To celebrate 50 years of Pink Floyd’s career and 45 years since the release of their masterpiece Dark Side of the Moon, The Sword guitarist Kyle Shutt has produced a heavy metal cover of this monumental and historic release. The album, which obviously contains 10 tracks, is a heavy metal celebration of Pink Floyd. Apart from the aforementioned mastermind and guitarist Kyle Shutt from The Sword, this project also includes members of Brownout, Brown Sabbath, Hard Proof and more.

For me personally, The Dark Side of the Moon stands out as one of the best rock records ever produced! It has always been my personal PF favorite. I still enjoy and get mesmerized by beautiful arrangements and a natural fluidity between every song. The overall musicianship is sublime and production was very innovative at the time.

Thus, I would be terrified of even thinking of creating this tribute album, but overall I think that Kyle Shutt & Co. have done a decent job. The music itself is hard to criticize as it leans pretty much towards classic Pink Floyd. Some of the minor things that are different here is the missing of the iconic heartbeat in the opening song “Speak to Me”. The following “Breathe (In The Air)” is pretty much the same as the original, just being slightly heavier than the original. On a more positive note I would say that Shutt and his band nailed the atmosphere and vocals on the both mentioned tracks.

“On The Run” and “Time” start in an almost same way; with no further inventions or new sounds added, just more sinister. “Great Gig in the Sky” sees the inclusion of a saxophone riffing and it works quite well and fitting. “Money” is another song that differentiate from the original version, since there’s no sound of a cash register. However the song still serves as a smooth and nice transition to “Us and Them”. “Brain Damage” and “Eclipse” are nice way to wrap-up the whole album.

Like many before them, this group has tried to capture the essence of Pink Floyd’s experimental progressive journey. They only partially succeeded – so I would not call Doom Side of the Moon a completely missed attempt. As a fan of progressive rock, stoner and doom metal, I’d definitely recommend giving Doom Side of the Moon a full listen.

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