Genre: Doom metal
Origin: Russia
Released: 2008
Website: Evoke Thy Lords
Label: Stygian Crypt Productions, Backfire Productions
Uploaded: 18.09.09

This is the debut album by this band, and upon receiving this the first time I’ve ever heard of them. So of course, since I knew nothing about them I looked them up. To my despair I read it was a gothic doom metal act, which scared the hell out of me. I hate goth music, pretty much in every form possible. But after listening to the record a couple of times I’ve come to the conclusion Evoke Thy Lords have been unfairly labeled gothic.
Sure, I can hear the hints towards said style, but overall Escape to the dreamlands is more epic doom metal. A gloomy dusk seems to hover over their songs. The melancholic atmosphere is quite superb, to be honest. But we’ll get to that later on. Musically the doom metal can be very straight forward of a classic recipe, and I’m sure one could argue over which bands to have influenced their sound with everything from Katatonia to Type O Negative to leave the arguer’s lips. But frankly such discussions are of little interest to me, ‘cause after some initial antipathy and concern I’ve found this debut to really hold its own.
The vocals can only be described as subtle growls, and this adds so much power to the melancholic atmosphere. With the dense, heavy riffing and drumming, to have the vocals only breach the surface of coherency makes for a killer musical experience. And with the addition of the clean female voice (also quite subtle) the atmosphere shifts towards eerie; as if walking across a field covered in fog, to be enticed by the beautiful voice of a huldra. It’s very intriguing. And the doom is laced with some folk music hints as a flute adds tons of catchy melody. All while a keyboard enhances the melancholy as it works its way through the background.
It’s all so subtle in a remarkably interesting way. Even the doom, which is the base of the music, feels subtle. They change pace fairly often and the tempo can quite frankly overstep the boundaries of what would normally be considered doom metal, but the atmosphere never lets go of the firm hold it has on the genre. Mesmerizing melancholy in a way I haven’t heard it be presented before. I can only hope they’ll be able to present something equally as intriguing with their next output.

Tracklist:
01. ~~~
02. Towards Yuggoth
03. Coming from beyond
04. ~~~
05. The awakening of the sleeping one
06. ~~~
07. Daemonolatry
08. The prophecy: rising chaos
09. Seared by eerie might
10. ~~~
11. The dreamlands