The beautiful city of Verona in northern Italy is well known for its medieval architecture and as the setting to Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Possibly not so well known is that it also had a flourishing Doom scene back in the 80's and 90's. It's from this scene that EPITAPH emerged. They released 3 demos, the last of which was around 1994. Doom bands are known for their slow pace, but it's taken EPITAPH almost 30 years from when they first started, to finally release their debut album. Even by Doom standards, the quickness of this is not just slow, but practically glacial.

The first track "Beyond the Mirror" is a great start to the album, and probably the highlight for me. The verse riff is very cool and wouldn't be out of place on a TROUBLE album. In fact, the whole song is jam packed with great riffs. The subtle unobtrusive uses of keyboards have been added here and there, but they are by no means the focal point on this track. Lorenzo Loatelli's guitar solos here, and on the rest of the album, fit well with the music and is there to enhance the song, rather than to show off his lead playing skills. His playing is slightly Iommi'esque, but he has his own distinctive style.

 After such a great start to the album, the rest of the songs don't reach quite the same heights for me. Out of the 9 songs most are mid-paced and I found myself longing for a crushingly slow doom song, something that sounds like it is actually crawling out of a crypt, or even a faster song. "The Battle of Inside" is almost the slow song I was hoping for but the drums don't really emphasize the slowness of the riffs, instead they somehow take away from the heaviness of the song. "Crying Puppets" is a nice change of pace; it's a shame this track wasn't included on the regular album, as I felt it was one of the better songs.

Emiliano Cioffi's vocal style could possibly be a deal breaker for some people on whether they get on with this album or not. He has quite an unusual style with hints of 80's Goth singers, especially on his vibrato, and Geddy Lee also occasionally sprang to mind.

For fans of TROUBLE, SAINT VITUS, and SPIRITUS MORTIS seeking out their next fix of doom, this isn't a bad place to look. There's some great riffs on here and the use of keyboards, chimes, stringed instruments etc... keep it interesting. Personally,, the vocal style isn't really to my taste but others may find it more appealing. More variation of song speeds would also have benefited the album. If doom is your thing, then check them out and see what you think.<