DARK DOOM is a one man Melodic Black/Doom Metal band hailing from England. The Journey," is his second full length album, in addition to also have a couple EPs and a compilation album.   As one would expect, their sound is furious and raw but with a melancholic, melodic, and dark atmosphere.  The cold and bleakness of Black Metal seems like something that wouldn't work with the often slower paced monolith that is Doom but the are really just two sides of the same sorrow.

With a 34 minute run time, the album doesn't waste anytime getting started.  The first track, "Spectre," opens with a clean guitar intro before getting into high gear.  As expected, the drums are a flash of fury and the vocals wail, screech, shout, and scream their way forward.  While the guitars do contain that classic BM sound, they often times drop temp (where the band's Doom sound comes into play) and even squeeze in a bit of blackened groove.  The fury ends for a respite in the form of a clean ambient passage that works well enough for the bands overall sound.

"Portal," is highlighted with rather melodic guitar in the opening moments-the drums at this part really compliment their sound. The rest of the song until the last minute and a half or so is fairy standard Black Metal but the rest of the song makes the listen worth it; killer riffs and a didn't approach than playing as fast as possible really open up the song's ending.

The last track, "Wilderness," begins with various noises from, well, the wilds before fading away to some well done acoustics.  Light touches of ambient keys throw shade and sorrow at the right moments. The rest of the song is rather intense with a few moments here and there that are memorable but most of it, again, pretty standard Black Metal.

As much as I enjoyed this album, I feel like their sound could open up a lot more if they kept introducing other expand or expand what they already do.  Although all five songs are solid, parts of them do sound the same to each other.  When they switch tempos, or throw around some Doom riffs, or add in melody here and there, it really makes them sound a lot different than other Blackened bands. As it stands, this is an enjoyable album for what it is but I really hope that future efforts show the band pushing the envelope a bit further.