Formed in 2018 and hailing from Romania, Atmospheric Doom/Death Metal band UMBERSUN present their debut full-length, titled “Endless Winter Nights.” From Bandcamp, all they had to say was this: “Who am I? But a walking tragedy...” “White” is the first song. The opening tones are weighted, and slow, and peppered with keyboards. The vocals are low-pitched gutturals, and they reverberate the ground underneath you. Ominous symphonic sounds also build in the background, creating a landscape of both fear and bleakness. The title track is even more hopeless sounding, and when the vocals saunter in, the background is filled with apocalyptic grim. It continues to get stronger, until there is a nice, soft, clean passage to completion.

“Awake (The Past We Bury)” begins with clean vocals, and a depressive but melodic sound that makes the heart ache. The harsh vocals continue the feeling, and there is a trade off from there between the two sounds. “Denied” begins with doleful piano notes that intermix with clean guitars, and punishing tones come in from there. With each heavy riff accent, you feel like you are being pounded into the earth, one strike at a time. Just before the halfway mark, it picks up, with a lot of energy and anger, the biblical kind in fact. I also love how the stretch out keyboards in the background between transitions.

“The Fall into Wretchedness” has a slow build of tension, and the bells seem like a deep warning. What follows is indeed a plunge into misery, and the clean vocals sung in the same note tell that story well. “Between Two Worlds” features lead guitar melodies that play nicely with the keyboards. The harsh vocals however cut down any semblance of hope with swift, full strikes, almost like a wrecking ball. In come gentle piano notes however, to bring specks of light back into the music. “To Dust (Into the Earth)” closes the album, and in a very primal way, it returns the beast to his sleep far beneath the ground. The long and slow return is done in steps, and you can feel his eyes grow weary with each step.

This was a very well put together Doom album because the band wasn’t afraid to use some instruments and styles that are not typical for the genre, like keyboards, and other backing elements. They helped to fill in the gaps that long songs tend to have every now and again, and this is a very promising effort.