What's up Doom Metal maniacs? I'm here once again to give you an insight on the Doom Metal quintet; hailing from Germany, comes: CROSS VAULT. Doom Metal at its finest.CROSS VAULT are a new band with only one previous album from 2014: "Spectres Of Revocable Loss". The band return in 2015 with "The All-Consuming".

While I'm still very new to Doom Metal and enjoy the likes of GEVAUDAN, SERPENT'S ATHIRST, and so on... Doom Metal has become to grow on me and I appreciate this venture more so than ever before.CROSS VAULT, however, are something special. This sound in "The All-Consuming" is enjoyable, fantastic and tolerable. Atmospheric; comes a loud "feel good" aesthetic of epic proportions. I especially love the hard hitting, heavy riffs: M. produces. Vocals by N. are very..."emotional" and growling now and then but, they really do work for this kind of genre.

You'd think 5 songs would be EP worthy. "Revocable Loss" is 10 minutes long and sets the mood for the rest of the album. The mood; I can only describe as, calming, soothing and outright heavy. You can still head bang to it and It's a glorious sound with sound production that is also top-notch quality. This is a band that should be getting more fans and going places. From the beginning; this track is slow but continues to build up in a tone, that's heavy as hell. It's also groovy in places too. This is including some very fine riffs at the end. Then we come to "Simple Marksman In The Pines" which has a similar outcome but is shorter, while retaining that slower, but atmospheric imagination; as if devastation consumed the world. Very catchy; acoustic tones are noteworthy here, as well as that gloriously retained heaviness. "Amber Nights" is the shorter song on the album. Lasting 5 minutes long; it begins with a fine acoustic intro. Heaviness still attained; but slowness still intact as well, this isn't your hard but heavy hitting track, but an enjoyable "concept" feel to it–almost anthem worthy.

And then the title track: "The All-Consuming" begins, most noteworthy is the ongoing riff that's very groovy. Slowness describes Doom Metal but the brutality is still well conducted. (from what I've heard in most bands and it works really well.) To be honest, the entire album is very samey all throughout, but that really isn't a bad thing. If it sounds damn good, and "The All-Consuming" really does, then why not make it last? But that's my only gripe here, a couple of the tracks being 10 minutes long; including "The Words That Pierce No Soul" can drag on and might be a little bit off-putting for some. But in regard to the positive side of things, the sound production, musicianship and instrumentation is quality and fine, just the musical side rolls on and on far too long.

On top of that, I feel "The All-Consuming" is EP worthy but because the album is around 45 minutes long, that's considered album worthy anyway. So, despite the 5 track description; we still have ourselves a full-length album with musical integrity that is 100% spot on, just the few nitpicks mentioned might be a bit off-putting for the consumer BUT, it's still worth checking out despite this. It's a masterful piece of work and should be appreciated for what it is. It is worth buying though? Sure, why not?

CROSS VAULT are a new band but I feel they definitely deserve the attention. They're in their prime and certainly deserve it I feel. So, check them out. Because why not?