Lights of Vimana - Neopolis

 Lights of Vimana is a doom metal band of international origins, hailing from the countries of Italy, Belgium and USA. “Neopolis,” is their debut album.

The band is new but the members have a lot of experience in the field, so to speak. Déhà (from so many bands/projects that I can’t name them, just do a quick google and dive right in!) provides vocals. He is joined by Jeremy Lewis on bass/guitars (Mesmur, Pantheïst) and Riccardo Conforti (Void of Silence) on drums/keys.  

This trio has created an album that is unique and truly special. They take such adjectives like “atmospheric,” and “sprawing,” and push to levels that no one else has reached this year. The weight of doom metal meets free floating textures to create passages of mystique and mystery, both serene and harrowing. It’s progressive—not in a flashy way but because of it’s dynamic changes and willingness to not even have a box to step outside of in the first place. 

Throughout the album, I was presented with a musical landscape that truly changes at the time ticks by. At times, I felt like I was preparing to journey off to another world. At other times, I felt quite claustrophobic. What I found the most interesting is how well the varying degrees of intensity (and not so intense) play off each other, each offering a glimpse into the other’s world. Some of the hardest moments were not even the meta aspects; likewise, some of the more cinematic approaches were brought by the tide of DOOM.

The opening song, “Nowhere,” contains more depth and nuances than many full-length albums. It is just over 14 mins in length and although it doesn’t feel that long, it seems like an album unto itself. It excels in its ambient, liminal spaces as much as it does the doom passages. 

The build-up of “Endure” is so creative that it's like the birth of a new dimension. The melodic interplay among the deep, clean tones weaves a tapestry of webs, each one a line to a darker place filled with thunderous riffs and death growls. I love how dynamic the mid section—it goes from crush to melodic to space and cold. 

“Real,” is the second longest song at around eleven and a half minutes but it’s beginning is a little more direct, with a shorter intro that leads into a barrage of riffs and expressive cleans. The lead guitar is very emotive, acting as a bridge to keep the song together as it comes in and out of an ambient passge that's loaded with atmospheric pressure. 

The title song is a shorter song that that's placed nicely in track listing to offer a sort of respite before the last song. It's a solid instrumental though that contains the album’s best elements on a small scale.

The final song, “Remember Me,” begins with a blanket of distortion and solid drummer that offers a solid, steady beginning. The song gets more aggressive as it moves along with a drums and the vocals in particular making the song a little more chaotic and intense than the ones that come before it the quick vocal changes between queens and extremes ready help to add a sense of urgency to the song.

The dynamics and variety of this album has potential to cast a wide appeal to a much broader audience than usual. I think people who are not even into doom could find something to enjoy here. People who are not even into metal in general will find this album a breath of fresh air but it's plenty heavy enough for doomets and metalheads to find more than enough to make this one of the better doom metal albums I've heard in the second half of this year.

Rating: Excellent