Polish sextet MAZE OF FEELINGS formed in 2014 in Poland, though both singers are from Russia. The band was interested in making Metal music without borders, and the seven-track debut album here is centered around the expression of various emotions. Loosely described as an amalgam of Doom and Death, let's get to the songs to hear for ourselves.

"Drained Souls Asylum" opens with a fairly linear riff that is a bit melancholy. The vocals come in deep and guttural and the music forms a dynamic bond with them. Some of the progressions remind me of the artist IHSAHN. Clean vocals fill the chorus with some twin guitar harmonies. The sound drops a bit near the halfway mark into an instrumental passage that builds some nice layering. For me, the music evokes a sense of loss combined with anger. "Adherence of Refined Severity" has an ominous sound as the chords drop heavily onto the earth below. There is again a combination of both harrowing Death vocals and cleans. Emotionally, I hear some resolve in this song.

"Where Orphaned Daughters Cry" is a dirge that opens with spoken word and clean guitar notes that turn even more mournful with electric guitars and lamenting clean vocals. A sense of cruelty and unscrupulous practices welts up inside you in a gut-wrenching howl. The Death vocals taunt, reminding you that you might not be in charge of your own fate. Sobs from a female voice take the track to completion. "Necrorealistic" has a SABBATH-esque riff that is served well coupled with both clean and Death vocals working in unison at times. The riff is charged, aggressive and bossy. Softer and more ambient passages are intertwined, making the weight of the heavy riff enough to move the listener on a physical level.

"Grey Waters of Indifference" features a gloomy landscape with long held clean vocal notes that are cut with brutal Death metal vocals that come from far under the earth. It clodhops at a lethargic pace but transforms just before the half-way mark with an atmospheric passage complete with female clean vocals. It's so bleak that it almost moves you to tears. "Cold Sun of Borrowed Tomorrow" extends over eleven minutes. As if the album could not be more depressing, this beast of a song puts the nails in your coffin and seals you six feet under. The varied vocal delivery is something that really adds flavor to the song as well. The piano and whistling winds at the end put down the final stamp...you're dead. "Dreamcatcher" closes the album. Spoken words lead off the song, whispered and gravely. A steady rhythm ensues, thick with condemnation. When you might have a flicker of hope left, this song douses it. As it closes he utters the words "I wish I could be happy, as now, as before."

Largely a Doom album for me, it is a bit unusual in that they don't just rely on the standard elements of the genre to push the hopeless, dejected sound. The varied vocal styles and smattering of Death and even Atmospheric Metal elements really make for a unique sound. A warning though-listening to the entire album at one time might make you feel like the world is closing in around you...which of course is the idea.