DOOMEASTVAN come off as one of the strongest contenders in the underground world of Doom; their second release aims to deliver, and damn well succeeds. Not an avid enthusiast of the genre, personally, I was pleasantly surprised. They have managed to create a polished album, steeped heavily in the esoteric, yet taking an adorably satirical approach to real-world lyrics.

"Humans are Bad" is almost deliberately a heavily-clichéd track; if the riffs were given an empirical weight, they would likely break backs. Straightforward honesty is clearly what this band is expressing, in one of the best fashions possible: minimalistic. "Buckle my Shoe" came as pure shock-treatment; a Doom Metal band writing a Thrash song? Confounded sorcery aside, it's a highly enjoyable track with lyrics that are clearly not intended to be coherent; it is unlikely you will ever heard "hot cross buns" growled over a breakdown.

"Daughter of Doom"; it's about time. A Prog album has its 20 minute epic; a doom album contains the same, at a tempo of 10. Thankfully, this track is not quite as momentous, though played at a tempo of -1. Alas, it was one of my favorites, and is a standout track on the album, with teeth-grindingly low speeds that are tethered together by ingenious chord progressions and drum fills. "Please Don't Hurt Me" was another peculiar surprise, for similar reasons as "Buckle my Shoe", further increasing the speed and blistering attacks; the track is left to snowball with frantic and chaotic guitar work.

If you're going to forget about accessibility as far as getting people to enjoy your music goes, doing what DOOMEASTVAN have done to their album may prove an effective alternative. How many Doom metal albums can you think of that are poetic, funny, satirical and nonsensical at the same time?