Mystons – Destination Death

Mystons is a Finnish duet, who have managed to take a minimalistic approach to their own Doom Metal sound. In this case, this means, for logical reasons, that the band only uses two instruments besides vocals: Drums and guitars. And while the two musicians are definitely talented (the fact that Destination Death is their fifth full-length album should be more than adequate as an example of this), this minimalist approach is not all too appealing to my more conservative tastes. Sure, the music is very good and riddled with lyrics and melodies to underline the overall hopelesness that bands of the genre are so good at portraying. However, in my opinion, the lack of a bas track causes the tracks to lack the depth and distorted sound that I normally link to the genre. This is somewhat mitigated, however, by the gruff-but-otherwise-clean vocals provided by the lead singer. Overall the Finnish have a penchant for creating bands and music within the Doom Metal genre, and Mystons is an excellent example of how this genre could also be shaped – For better or for worse. Looking at the positive side it can be mentioned that Mystons have managed to carve out their own niche and sound within their chosen genre; On the other hand (which is most likely only a problem due to my very limited approach to music) this also means that there are very few points of reference to other bands: Very few resemble Mystons, which makes it new and unusual to me. I cannot deny, however, that tracks such as ”Hand of Doom” is very catchy and well-defined in its own right, and tracks such as this shows promise for the band (in my limited optics at least). But cutting to the bone, Destination Death can be summarized as a unique, simplified example of what Doom Metal can sound like – For better or worse. However, add a bas track and I would no doubt be very attracted to this album. Sadly I cannot recommend any similar bands in this instance, since I, for the life of me, cannot think of a single other band that has taken such an atmospheric genre and succesfully taken such a minimalist approach to it. But who knows, maybe some day someone will enlighten me.