Synopsis:

So The Prophecy is a classic styled doom band from England and with the opening tones of “Odyssey”, which mimics My Dying Bride’s “The Cry of Mankind” a little too closely, the band’s influences are a little more than obvious. But this comes a little too close to the source material for my liking.

Review:

Being from England and mixing evocative, morose riffs, deep growls, clean, mopey crooning, sobering violins and lengthy tracks, you’d forgive The Prophecy for maybe being a My Dying Bride cover band (drummer John Bennett has even session drummed for MDB) that mixes the band's more doom/death style of their early material with the band’s whiny mid era phase (The Angel and the Dark River, Like Gods of the Sun), but they do it well.

The material here needs little explanation if you own a sampling of MDB’s discography; vocalist Matt Lawson has the same deep gruff growls mixed with plenty of Aaron Stainthorpe-ish whines while the riffs crumble and shimmer with a precise, lumbering gait. It all lacks the Finnish sense of melancholy melody (though “Of Darkness” tries) or some of the recent sheer mass and density of doom (i.e, Ahab, Asunder), but lies pleasantly in between with a deep sense of the seminal early 90’s British doom scene (Paradise Lost, Anathema), which in itself is a welcome change for a former Brit such as myself.

The tracks are competent and appropriately bleak and moody but without making you want to kill your self. However, none of them really make the album standout or come across as more than a pure MDB homage (i.e. “Cascades”, “Willows Hope”, even parts of  “Of Darkness” reeks of MDB early attempts to speed things up like “The Forever People”). Only the title track carries a bit more unique identity due to its almost exclusive clean vocals and almost ballad pace. And closer "Broken" shows some promise within its many testures, if Lawson can just stop imitating Aaron Stainthorpe.

Not a bad album at all, just an album that needs a bit more individuality, but certainly for classic British Doom fans.