ALL WE LEAVE BEHIND is band from Grenoble, France, practicing a Doom-Death Metal mixed with Gothic atmospheres. They aim to share with as many people as possible its uncompromising vision of our society, addressing the questions of ecology, religion and the fragility of the human condition. The album has eleven songs, and "Darkness Prevails" is first. The main riff is slow, easy on the ears, and it grinds. There is some weight as well, but the song isn't as thick as it could be. The vocals are very guttural as well. It carries on steadily throughout, without a lot of dynamics….what you hear is what you get.

"Nailed to a Dark Fate" has a piano led entrance, but it's short lived. There is a bit more bombast here, but it's still a similar slow, grinding sound with a simply riff. "Falling Deeper" is yet another slow grind. The album doesn't necessarily lack vision so far, it lacks variety and diversity. "The Curse" might be the first song that presents some diversity…clean, solemn guitars open the song. From there, however, it is right back to that same slow grind once again. The clean tones do bring a little more to the table, but the vocals are delivered in the same way. "The One You Fear to Name" is yet another slow grind, and the band seems to be willing to deliver much of the album in the same manner. The clean vocals here are pitchy as well, and not very pleasing.

"Endless Suffering" has, you guessed it, another similar sound. There are some light lead breaks here and there that pepper some of the hopelessness, but they drive the latter tones down your throat. "Rise and Fall" is another doom laden song. I love me some Doom Metal, and it's better when Death Metal is mixed in as ALL WE LEAVE BEHIND does, but too many of the songs have a similar pace and riffs for me. This riff does vary a bit however, with some powerful leanings. The final song is titled "Ruins of the World," and as the title suggests, it's eerie…at first anyway. If they would have extended the piano notes, we could be talking about an entirely different song. But, they fall back to the same sound once again.

Doom Metal can be very exciting. This album was just average in the annals of the genre. Too many of its 11 songs sounded too close to one another, and that is my main issue with the album as a reviewer.