Evocative doom is easily some of the best and most memorable sounds that can come out of the absolute menagerie of styles that doom calls its own, but there’s nothing that can compare when it’s performed by masters of the craft. We could be here all day recounting some of the best that the style has to offer with plenty more to still go over, but, if you ask me, a name that remains as consistent as they are grand despite not achieving the recognition that I feel they’re more than worthy of is undoubtedly Clouds. Clouds has been delivering apex doom that plucks at the very heartstrings with ease for eight years now, and never once have they failed to deliver a work that cannot be seen as anything other than massive. With their new effort, it’s beyond fascinating for me to see this English act still manage to deliver the goods in absolute heaps.

Even with five full-length records already under their belt with each proceeding release somehow being better than the previous in some form or another, it’s not less than bewildering to be able to see the magic of Clouds still persist so strongly in any given work that they put forth. One would normally expect an act to find themselves treading the same ground, repeating themselves, or, worst-case scenario, sounding boring in their comfortable monotony, particularly when the band has an incredibly fast production rate. It’s with “Despartire” that Clouds delivers to us their fourth full-length in three years, and I think it goes without saying at this point that they’ve done yet another spectacular job from beginning to end. Whether or not the band spent time in isolation really honing their craft and creating a real monsoon of sorrow and internal torment, it’s clear that Clouds has been doing no less than maximizing their time to the absolute fullest such that not only have we come to be surprised for in the last few years with a new effort from Clouds but they’ve managed to make it so masterfully compelling that I would dare any fan of doom to look into the very soul of a work like “Despartire” and not be moved by all that it is. It’s far from uncommon to see a band, particularly in this vein of metal, really go out of their way to craft an experience that can elicit tearful emotions, but it’s only on the rarest occasions do we get a performance that does nothing but extreme justice for everything that the sound can be.

Where we see immense rarity for such creations out of other acts, Clouds somehow makes it a consistent, regular flow of absolute glory. This band has been the very definition of what many envision the sound to be in all of its many forms, and I can’t help but feel that if there is to be any modern act that needs to really start being considered worthy to the throne of evocative doom like like My Dying Bride (just to name one) then it’s Clouds and “Despartire” that should be first in line.

“Despartire” releases on October 14th!

PRE-ORDER “Despartire” on Bandcamp here.

LISTEN to the single, “Deepen This Wound”, via YouTube here or below.

LIKE Clouds on Facebook here.