SALVATION

"Salvation" is the 4th full-length studio album by UK, Halifax, Yorkshire based doom metal act The Prophecy. The album was released through code666 in January 2013. The Prophecy were formed in 1999 and have since the release of their debut full-length studio album "Ashes (2003)" steadily developed their brand of doom metal and increased their fanbase along the way. The lineup hasn´t changed since "Into the Light (2009)", which is a bit of an anomaly when it comes to The Prophecy, which is a band that has been mared by constant lineup changes in especially their formative years.

The music on "Salvation" is at it´s core atmospheric doom metal, but the band skillfully incorporate elements from doom/death metal and progressive metal too. The doom/death element on the album consists of occasional growling vocals. The growling vocals are not a dominant feature in the music though and most vocals on the album are clean sung. The 5 tracks on the 49:25 minutes long album are predominanly slow building (and for the most part around 10 minutes long) and dynamic tracks featuring both mellow melancholic sections and more majestic heavy parts. Sometimes I´m reminded of a heavier version of contemporary Anathema, sometimes a Dead Can Dance influence creeps in and after listening to the album and digging into the music a bit deeper, I´ve also encountered a pretty obvious Fates Warning influence.

The musicianship are on a high level and while lead vocalist Matt Lawson isn´t the most distinct sounding vocalist out there, he is actually pretty skilled and his delivery suits the music well. Personally I could have done without the growling vocals, which are pretty anonymous, but they appear relatively seldom (they are most dominant in the closing track "Redemption"), so it´s not a major issue. "Salvation" features a professional, clear, and powerful sounding production too (although the distorted guitar tone could have been slightly more powerful) and all in all the album is a high quality release on all parameters. A 4 star (80%) rating is deserved.