Polish band Evangelist consists of members who want to remain anonymous. They are a Christian formation with one full length on their roster, In Partibus Infidelium. Doominicanes is the second one, consisting of five tracks that last for about forty five minutes.
I haven’t heard the band’s debut, so I can’t compare, but what Doominicanes stands for is a mixture of Traditional Doom and Epic Doom. For the better part, Evangelist seem to seek inspiration by Swedish masters Candlemass. That’s all right, because many bands do so, and in this case it is of a decent quality. But I think it might be a little too much candlemassy, with tracks that would do on classics like Nightfall and Ancient Dreams.
Nevertheless, everything fits. The vocals go well with the melodic and heroic riffs, the rhythm is pounding and majestic, the atmosphere is both cool and hot, and the whole comes with enough energy and persuasion to grab you whole the time. On top of it, the album is produced ingeniously: heavy in sound, clean in finalisation, yet not clinically over-produced by keeping the whole sounds thankfully rough. This too is enormously Candlemass-inspired, of course…
But in any way, I can truly recommend this biblical epos to most fans of ‘oldies’ like Trouble, Solitude Aeternus and Mirror Of Deception, or newer acts like Doomshine, Procession, Black Oath and Isole. …besides mighty Candlemass, of course…