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Doom

Total Doom
2002
Peaceville/Snapper

Doom - Total Doom (Cover Artwork)

Review by: feeeding5000
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Published on September 15th 2006

Doom is certainly a band that’s built a reputation. If you see someone on the street with a Doom t-shirt on, you’ll probably walk as far away from him or her as possible, mostly to avoid the stench. Or, if the person is female, and you’re like me, you’ll probably spend a disturbingly long amount of time staring at that person, and then you’ll look her in the eye, and she’ll immediately start walking away from you very quickly. But I digress.

I found Total Doom, surprisingly enough, at a chain CD store in a shopping mall. The sticker on the CD read “Doom is the best ‘80’s Grind since Discharge.” Well, they did compare it to Discharge, which is totally necessary, because Doom is, first and foremost, a D-Beat band. However, this means that Peaceville Records, a metal label that was instrumental in the creation of U.K. crust (and released albums by the likes of Deviated Instinct, Electro Hippies, and Axegrinder, among others), is deliberately trying to pass this off as “grind,” a subgenre of heavy metal, as opposed to “hardcore,” which would be a subgenre of punk. While this may just be an attempt to get interest from Peaceville’s regular customers, it may just be an issue of semantics.

In any case, Total Doom is a collection of Doom’s first EP, Police Bastard, their first LP, War Crimes -- Inhuman Beings, and their side of a split LP, Bury the Debt, Not the Dead. This is pretty much 37 tracks of faster, more bass-heavy Discharge worship -- and I’m not saying that’s a bad thing. I’m a relatively big Discharge fan, so I can appreciate a late ‘80s D-Beat album with more power than the early Varukers songs. The vocals are completely unintelligible, like grind-core progenitors Napalm Death. Every so often you can make out a few words, usually ones like “fuck,” “bastard,” and “die.” The grind designation does work well for one song, “Circles,” which is played considerably faster than the rest of the CD.

The CD is in a digipak, which is still the greatest CD case ever invented, and it contains some liner notes, photos, and original album art. Unfortunately, the metalhead bastards at Peaceville skipped on a booklet, so you can’t even read the unintelligible lyrics.

So, basically, this is not bad. Not bad at all. A good compilation, and probably some of Doom’s best work. Also, probably the most easily available of their CD’s. Uhh…up the punx.

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Posted by klonny on 2006-09-18 17:31:08

If they have songs about punching explosive barrels, I'm totally in.

Posted by Sick_Nick on 2006-09-18 16:05:40
My Score:

If you need doom lyrics, they have them at www.darklyrics.com

I bought this cd last year, awsome buy, even though I did kinda burn myself out on it.

Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, September 16, 2006 at 8:35 PM (EDT)

their logo looks identical to the Doom software game's. Lawsuit?

Posted by JustinUCR on 2006-09-16 18:10:06

digipaks suck.

otherwise good review, I guess

Posted by notfeelingcreative on 2006-09-16 14:56:39

I respect the objectivity of feeding500's reviews, too many people that listen to crust/peace punk/whatever label you want to attatch to the subgenre, would be quick to say "well, it's not often this style is reviewed so I'm just going to give it a ten'!

Posted by notfeelingcreative on 2006-09-16 14:53:34

"But keeping in the vein of Will's crust bashing, the only people I ever see wearing Doom shirts are 17-year old anarcho punks. Weird..."

I'm 27, I love doom, I don't wear doom shirts because frankly I'm too old to walk around wearing a doom shirt and stinking to high hell!

Posted by ILOVESCOTT on 2006-09-15 20:31:48

i'm liking your reviews more and more. and its good to have stuff reviewed here that isn't the same ol' same ol'.

Posted by geneticrunaround on 2006-09-15 18:16:34
My Score:

I have Police Bastard and I think I should buy this.
The description of their fans at the beginning is pretty accurate, though.

Posted by Anonymous on Friday, September 15, 2006 at 5:40 PM (EDT)

"Doom isn't d beat."

Well not straight up, but it certainly veers towards it, Discharge is obviously a huge influence.

Posted by Anonymous on Friday, September 15, 2006 at 5:35 PM (EDT)

Doom isn't d beat.

Posted by gladimnotemo on 2006-09-15 16:59:24

I have "Fuck Peaceville", which is a 2xLP, and I haven't made it through the entire thing yet. It has re-recorded songs (I think the LP, Police Bastard 7", etc etC) with their second singer, but I honestly can't tell him apart from their first...or their third...etc etc.

But keeping in the vein of Will's crust bashing, the only people I ever see wearing Doom shirts are 17-year old anarcho punks. Weird...

Posted by Anonymous on Friday, September 15, 2006 at 3:34 PM (EDT)

I used to think this band was cool, but I've come to learn that they're for assholes who smell, sit around smoking pot all day, and walk through my room to take a piss.

-Will

Posted by Scruffy on 2006-09-15 15:23:55

Did the reviewer just inadvertently admit to the world that he smells?

Posted by Phantom_Maggot on 2006-09-15 14:36:33

Err...second sentence.

Posted by Phantom_Maggot on 2006-09-15 14:36:13
My Score:

This review was aweseome, especially the first sentence. My only experience with someone who listened to Doom, was this huge guy hick guy wearing an NRA shirt at a party, who when he I found out I liked punk, said he loved Doom but hated everything else sucked. I thought he was going to beat the hell outta me cuz I was wearing my "Not my president Shirt". Score is for the review and giving this site punk credbility.

Posted by Anonymous on Friday, September 15, 2006 at 2:04 PM (EDT)

While Grind is a sub genre of metal more specifically death metal, it is laced with Hardcore punk underpinings see Napalm Death, Nausm etc. But i agree that label on the Doom record is wrong, this band is more along the lines of D-beat crust.

Posted by Anonymous on Friday, September 15, 2006 at 2:00 PM (EDT)

Classic band.

Posted by notfeelingcreative on 2006-09-15 10:58:19
My Score:

Someone finally reviewed this, it's about time!!

Posted by gladimnotemo on 2006-09-15 10:26:52
My Score:

Police police bastard. Etc etc etc etc.

Posted by john_stone on 2006-09-15 01:42:12
My Score:

They don't have to sound like Discharge. They sound like Doom, and Doom is awesome.

Posted by danperrone on 2006-09-15 01:05:51

the rock?

Posted by Anonymous on Friday, September 15, 2006 at 12:45 AM (EDT)
My Score:

Doom were just an ok band to me. I never understood or hear anything that even resembles the Discharge influence in this band and others that sound like Doom. To me one of the only bands that ever really got close to sounding like Discharge was Crucifix.

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