I’ve been following Italy’s ASSUMPTION’s music for quite a while, so I was excited when I first saw it announced that 20 Buck Spin will release their new album. After listening to it I can say I’m happy they’re getting on the contemporary trend of dark melodicism I’m noticing with bands like WITCH VOMIT, MEFITIS and others. A very obscure trend if you will, so maybe it’s better to say they’re contributing to the synchronicity of the movement. At the same time, given their Death Doom Metal background, the tempos on “Paradox Of The Arrow” are much slower than what the bands mentioned above would use. While the song ‘Selenite’ has a blast beat passage in its introduction, most of the album uses variations of minimalistic drumming, the overall impression being of midtempo steadiness and at times going even slower into Funeral Doom territory. And because I’ve mentioned Funeral Doom, you should know that it’s not just the tempos, it’s also the use of keyboards throughout this release: ‘Tombs Upon The Sun’ begins with that kind of distorted power chords accompanied by minimalistic synths specific to this genre. The use of almost clean guitar tones, the actually clean ones being specifically drenched in reverb, on the repetitive and at times dissonant melodies also contributes to this categorization. Speaking of guitar tones, while this being a Death Metal release with distorted guitars and loud drums, the overall sound is quite clean, leaving space for all instruments to be noticed, and this is for a good reason since there’s quite a lot happening, this could be easily considered today’s form of Avantgarde Death Metal. Some of the guitar solos almost go into Jazz territory and ‘Selenite’ has a Doom Jazz moment that could entice fans of BOHREN & DER CLUB OF GORE. Other guitar solos remind me of the melodic playing of WITCH VOMIT, or Phil Tougas of WORM and FUNEBRARUM fame. Speaking of WITCH VOMIT, ‘Southwards Our Spirits Shall Forever Drift’ employs the sort of mournful melodies and chord progression that you might hear on “Funeral Sanctum”. Besides these dark melodic passages you can also hear some angular Death Metal riffing: the gift of living in a post DEMILICH world. Some other bits I’d like to mention are the contrapuntal playing on tracks like ‘Selenite’ and ‘Paradox Of The Arrow’ that create the MEFITIS connection, the interesting use of spoken word throughout the album and at times the choir like singing, probably a nod to TIMEGHOUL. There’s a lot more to notice if you give it more than just a listen. Highly recommended if you’re a fan of Death Metal or music as an art form. www.facebook.com/assumptiondoom, www.facebook.com/20buckspin