• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5

It would be so easy to make a joke out of that title, like A Line Of Riffless Songs, or And Lo, the Dickless Sings, but it would be a cheap shot, and the first one wouldn't be true anyway. I will, however, point out that despite sounding bad-ass, the title of MDBs ninth studio album is nonsensical – if the kings are deathless, how is there a line, pray? But this is all beside the point, what you want to know is if the album is any good.

What we have here is an album filled with heavy, sometimes beautiful Doom riffing covered up with some of the lamest, wussiest vocals you can imagine. The problem is this: the band is playing a Doom Metal album, the singer is singing weak-assed Emo songs in a weak-ass Emo voice. As my wife said "Like A Perfect Circle, only not as good." Ouch, but true. Aaron Stainthorpe sounds absolutely terrible on this disc, harking back to all sorts of Nu-Metal abortions like Staind and Puddle Of Mudd. Doom is supposed to be depressing, but that's not the same as wallowing in mascara-smeared self-pity. Titles like "I Cannot be Loved" and "Love's Intolerable Pain" belong on some faggothic album, not a supposed metal disc. It's sad, but this is some good to very good Doom ruined by terrible singing and worse lyrics. I'd say I wish MDB would get a better vocalist, but after sixteen years, I know that ain't gonna happen. So A Line Of Deathless Kings is doomed, so to speak, by a singer who seems to wish he was in an insufferable band like Katatonia. Listen if you must, but don't say I didn't give you fair warning about the boo-hoo-poor-me factor.