To be honest I had never heard of The Knell before, but considering my musical taste and probably the fact that they’re from Israel that isn’t a complete crime. With this album I also got to know another subgenre, the so-called funeral doom. The Knell was formed in 1998 by a duo and parted ways with a lot of other musicians, but after releasing some demo’s in 2000 and 2001. Finally in 2005 they got a band together and inked a record deal with Total Rust Music. Well 2 years later their first full length album, called Harm, is released.

 

After doing some research on the world wide web about The Knell I got to know this subgenre of doom where the atmosphere is even more important than with the regular doom metal and hardly any tempo changes are allowed in the songs. After the first song, ‘Black Veil (And Promise)’ it was clear to me that this type of music doesn’t fit me very well. The song starts with an intro that last for two minutes before any sort of guitars are added and another two minutes before the song really gets started. During this song the name Opeth flashes through my mind several times. Not because the music is so alike but more because of the atmosphere they're trying to create.

 

As for the production, Total Rust Music didn’t take any risk of recording any music in Israel and shipped the band to the Priory Recording Studio in the U.K. Which turned out very well for The Knell because Greg Chandler gave them a great sound with a clean production. Luckily enough he didn’t overproduce the keyboards which is a mistake that is easily made with these kind of bands.

 

Overall Harm isn’t a bad album but the main point is that the album is too slow to really grab my attention and hold it for the rest of the songs. I will not say that this album suck but it doesn’t fulfill my needs when I listen to a doom metal album. Because when I do, I want to have the feeling I want to hang myself at the end of the album. Well maybe I do want to do that but then again it’s not because Harm is such a great doom album.