DooM Syndicate

Metal fans in Roanoke,VA have been treated to the roaring speed metal of DooM Syndicate for awhile,and now its time for the world.Beyond Salvation is the first full-length album from DooM Syndicate and it hopefully will not be the last.This album is as fast and technical as you can imagine and every track on it keeps you banging your head from begining to end.The stand out tracks on the album are the title track and "Product of Enviroment",but don't discount the other seven tracks because they all deserve they're day in court.This is definetly an excellent debut from a band you'll surely hear from in the future.
Gary Kohler - Review by Gary Kohler

Lock up all the posers and burn those fuckers to the ground - that's what you'll want to do when you listen to the new Doom Syndicate cd, "Beyond Salvation". Holy shit - my ass got blown back a few feet when I heard the opening track "Black Sleep of Cabbie". This 9-song cd features some incredible production quality with an intense piece of art on the cover as well as a slick inside booklet featuring lyrics, pics, and more. Huge fuck yeahs for these guys mentioning Heavycore in their thanks and even slapping our logo on the inside booklet. They've got 666 thumbs up from us here at the CORE. This is some intense death metal with hints of black metal at times.

The musical talent in this band is unreal. Scott Doom on lead guitar is a monster on the frets and stomps ass at all times. He lays down some of the best solos I've heard in a very long time, and together with rhythm/lead guitar player Rob Milani - they bring the pain all day long with a sick ass crunch. Bass player Chip, also shows off his talents with some intense work and also provides some growling back up on vocals. There were a few times I thought he could have come up in the mix - but I'm a bass player (ha). The drummer, Dan Brooks, is fucking unbelievable. We recently saw them at a Heavycore show and he was absolutely insane behind the kit - some serious double bass action. I also love the vocal style of Jr. Martin as he belts out some of the sickest growls, mixed in with some insane higher stuff that really blew my ass away watching him live. These guys are the real deal - each one of them flat out shreds. My favorite track on the cd is "Fearless in the Face of Death" - but each one of them kicked my ass bloody.

Not only is Doom Syndicate an incredible band, but they are cool mother fuckers and are all about supporting Heavycore. We're proud of them here, as they embark on a tour with Macabre and Cataclysm. I'm sure they'll do us proud and represent the Core, as well as their label - Rotting Corpse Records.

- Pete Altieri

Snake.net Metal Radio Review of show at Casteldas, Burlington,NC
By Snake

“The best part about going to underground metal fests like this is finding new bands that are really cool. Doom Syndicate from Roanoke, VA wins the award for my favorite new discovery of the night. They RULE! They are one of the best death metal acts I have seen…not just for a local act, but vs. nationals too. These guys are ready for prime time. I don’t even know where to begin to describe them. The vocals were superb. They had a guitarist who is about 400 lbs and put out about 1200 lbs of heavy ripping leads. The bass…the drumming…everything was just incredible. The vocalist is a natural showman…not in the cheesy sense, but he knew how to work a crowd effortlessly. The songs were well written and the band was extremely tight…like they have been playing the same songs together for years. I rarely see a band this good. If you are into death metal, find out where these guys are playing and go see them. Trust me on this. You’ll thank me later.” - Snake

Roanoke Times Extra Section Saturday May 1st#
Roanoke speed-metal kings Doom Syndicate boast a large, loyal following.
By Mason Adams

Herein Roanoke, where punk and metal bands share stages and sometimes shows, there’s one way to distinguish the genres: Just look at the mosh pit.
Whereas punkers tend to move in a fast flailing circle, metal kids violently throw themselves into one another as hard as possible.

And no metal band makes them mosh harder than Doom Syndicate, which has been turning out hammer dropping speed metal for seven years now. During a recent show at Salem Avenue’s Factory 324, several teenagers thrashed with abandon as singer J.R. Martin and bassist Chip Mengerink screamed through vocal lines. Axe man Scott “Doom” Doyle bobbed his head while ripping lightning riffs. Rob Milani’s guitar brought melodic sturdiness to the tunes while Daniel Brooks’ double-bass blast beats provided fuel for the mosh.

Just outside the perimeter of colliding teenage boys, a group of fans dressed in black leather and spiked jackets banged their heads and occasionally threw the devil-horn salute. Fifteen-year-old Amber Constable sat on a speaker closer to the action but safely out of harm’s way.

“They’re definitely the best metal band here,” Amber said after the show. “Without them, there wouldn’t be a metal scene in Roanoke at all.”

Doom Syndicate has built a steady following through touring and regular shows at Factory 324, and the band is in the final stages of recording tracks for its new album, “Beyond Salvation.” If the new album is anything like past recordings, expect more speedy guitars, thudding bass and nonstop blast beats. The term “extreme metal” covers several sub-genres: Doom Syndicate doesn’t fall into any one in particular. Instead, the band pulls bits from thrash, death metal and even the much lamented “nu metal” genre.

In addition to recording an album, Doom Syndicate has taken its show on the road. It played at the Las Vegas Metalfest and headlined a stage at the Milwaukee Metalfest. However, the band remains dedicated to Roanoke, where it has spearheaded a local metal scene that includes Random Noise Generator, Bludfed, and Ill Omen. Martin said seeing Roanoke fans react to the music still gives him a thrill.

“When we play, and you see the hands in the air and their lips moving to your songs, that’s a good feeling.” Martin said. “We’ve even got a couple of fans who have spray-painted ‘Doom Syndicate’ on their jackets. They don’t know us as friend, just through the band. That’s an awesome feeling”

The band formed in 1997, but only Doyle and Martin remain from the original lineup. Both had played in a variety of other groups before meeting during a show by Doyle’s death metal group Hate Cylinder. The band heard Martin singing along to their songs and invited him backstage afterward for an audition.

“Scott said, ‘Let out your loudest growl,’” Martin said. “I did and he told me to come to practice. I started to develop my own style after that.”

Since then, they’ve gone through a number of changes in the group. The current lineup has been together about two years. Brooks, 22, is the only Roanoke native. Martin, 26, grew up in Lynchburg. Doyle, 30, Mengerink, 26, and Milani, 25, are from California, Indiana and New Jersey, respectively.

Despite their far-flung backgrounds, the band members seem happy to remain in the Star City.

“We’re right in the middle of the East Coast metal explosion,” Doyle said.

The Internet and a network of contacts built over years of touring have helped Doom Syndicate as well. The group wants to build a national following, but says it doesn’t have to move to Los Angeles for that to happen.

“It really doesn’t matter where you’re from,” Martin said. “If you’re good, you’re going to be heard.”

“You can get big anywhere,” Doyle said. “We’ve built up our connections slow and over time. We don’t have to go and try to sell out to the first label that comes along. We’re totally dedicated to our music, to the international metal scene, the movement.”

Doom Syndicate’s members have been outspoken in their support of the metal scene at Factory 324, which in recent months has hosted dozens of all ages shows. Doyle traces the venue’s role in the scene back into the 1980’s, when it was known as the Iroquois. Since then it’s gone through periods as the Ghost of Hollywood, Hell’s Kitchen, the King’s Inferno and Desire’s.

“This venue in general, no matter what it’s been called has always had a good history for punk and metal,” Doyle said. “we’ve been kind of successful, but that goes hand and hand with this club. This is where it all started. We want to make sure it stays here.”

After all, this is where their hardcore fans are. Before the Factory was granted a license to sell alcohol a few weeks ago, the bulk of the shows were attended by younger fans such as speaker-sitter Amber, 14-year-old Ian Stroud and 15-year-old Jessica Dickson. All three said they first heard about Doom Syndicate from their friends and have regularly attended shows ever since.
With beer sales and the occasional 21-and-up show, that younger contingent won’t be able to make as many shows.

“That kind of upsets us, too,” Doyle said, but he also thinks that more of a mix in the scene will strengthen the band’s fan base.

At an all-ages show shortly after the alcohol permit was approved, the band was unloading its equipment in front of the Factory while Radford’s Terror Ascends warmed up the crowd with a series of metal riffs and choreographed head bangs. A woman sitting in the roped off alcohol area smiled at members of Doom Syndicate outside and seductively licked her been bottle. The band member hooted and high-fived one another and continued to move a giant banner embroidered with their name.

In front of the stage, teenagers banged their heads and affectionately shoved one another/ Amber held her position on the speaker, eyes closed. The members of Doom Syndicate looked at the goings-on and nodded in approval.

“Roanoke has a really good scene,” Martin said. “This scene was put together really well. We sometimes play bigger cities, and they don’t have what we’ve got here.”
- Roanoke Times

Beyond Salvation” displays the various influences of Doom Syndicate loudly and proudly, covering all faces of extreme metal from thrash to hardcore to death to grind.



“Black Sleep of Cabbie” opens the disc with some straight-up oldschool metal riffing in the vein of Iron Maiden, circa “Piece of Mind”, then immediately snaps your neck with a shift into some death metal ranting and violence. The rest of the album follows a similar formula, keeping you off-balance and always waiting to see (or hear) what’s next. For every pissed off, aggression and rage-filled “Gathering the Armies of Doom”, there’s an “Of Love and War”, which shocks the listener with its almost gothic black metal movements at times. For each pounding, grinding “Beyond Salvation” there’s a shrill, shrieking “Sever the Leech”.



The one constant throughout the album is the solid musicianship. Doom Syndicate plays aggressive, biting metal without getting sloppy about it or falling into the trap of covering up their music with their rage. They are technically brutal in the same way that Dillinger Escape Plan is, without being as pretentious about it. Even the predominantly grindcore vocals are mixed up occasionally with some thrashy hardcore shrieks.



In the end, this offering speaks well both of a band that has found their muse in extreme metal and all of its various faces and made something all their own with it and a label that is going about pushing that music the right way. Rotting Corpse gives a good accounting of themselves with this effort. The packaging and production are top-notch, which is also nice to see on the independent label scene. If you like your metal loud and aggressive, but you want that message delivered with actual musical proficiency, as opposed to blindly raging testosterone, then pick this disc up, embrace the doom and find yourself “Beyond Salvation” like yours truly.


-Late
- Larry Mac

Genre: Death Metal with many variations (Melodic, Technical, Brutal, etc.)
Country: USA
Year Of Release: 2004
Label: Rotting Corpse Records
Length: 38:11



Reviewed by Herzebeth

I can't remember the last time a band impressed me this much, I think it was a couple of years ago when I bought “Lucid Interval” by Cephalic Carnage, but that’s another story. Doom Syndicate is a Death Metal band that actually brings new stuff to the table; their music goes from Melodic Death to almost Technical Brutal Death, in fact they experiment a lot with that particular genre, so they are not just another hybrid mixing a thousand genres stupidly, “Doom Syndicate” focused only in the variations of Death Metal (for experimentation issues that is), and damn they did a fucking great job.

The music fluctuates marvelously from track to track; there’s no boring song actually, every single tune has something cool in it, either a catchy riff or a crushing bass-line, an incredible Guitar Solo or awesome Drumming, a shivering growl or a high-pitched shriek, etc. I can’t describe precisely how this band sounds, but the cover-art sums it all up; this album is like being hanged with oxidized chains in a really windy and macabre night, left to die inside a really dark cave with human skulls all over the horrid location, very cool right?

This band is actually “New” in the metal scene, none the less their sound is polished and structured, the songs have weird (but good) arrangements, they know exactly where to add a Guitar solo, the double-pedal is there many times but it does not sound boring at all, they create incredible Breakdowns and awesome bridges, etc. I am sure “Doom Syndicate” will grow awesomely someday (if they keep playing this kind of music of course.)

I highly recommend this band; every Death Metal fan should at least hear “Fearless In The Face Of Death” (by far the best track in the album). Go now and find this album no matter what, I’m sure you’ll thank me someday. YOU WILL FEAR THE DOOM!

Best Tracks: “Fearless In The Face Of Death”, “Sweet Lady Pain”, “Sever The Leech”

- Herzebeth

DOOM SYNDICATE - BEYOND SALVATION
(9 song CD)
ROTTING CORPSE RECORDS
DOOM SYNDICATE play some very heavy Death Metal music. They do blend in a few other styles of Metal into their sound as well. The foundation of their sound is Death Metal & they blend in elements of Doom, Black & Thrash Metal for some flavoring. They have a good balance of old school & new school Death Metal. The vocals are a mix of one being low end Death growls & the other higher pitched Death screams. These guys are extremely good & need to be checked out!!! - www.DOOMSYNDICATE.com - Beowolf Productions