The Czech Republic is still a white spot on my musical map, and I have no clue what's going on there. But now it's my first meeting with a Czech band, due to the reason that the Czech label Crystal Productions had sent me over a package, that contains three of their latest releases. D.O.P. are playing some sort of doom-laden goth metal as we know it from bands like My Dying Bride and so on. Slow, intense riffs, gargling vocals and a sometimes dramatic and bombastic sound and so on, without reaching the class of the aforementioned band. For me the album is only partly enjoyable as it is a two-edged experience. In their best moments D.O.P. have some real heavy riffs, but the sweet and cheesy keyboard sound destroys a lot.

They should throw away this instrument, and keep the focus on a more natural sound, that contains only bass, guitar, vocals and drums. If the keyboard would create an obscure or bizarre atmosphere I won't complain, but here it reminds me to all the terrible goth-metal crap, and that's a music I never liked. Well, you may ask what about a female singer and, voila, here's one but only listed as a guest musician and she appears not very often on this album. D.O.P. aren't a worse band, and they have not much in common with awful shit like Nightwish etc., because they are much heavier and not so overproduced (although, not far away from it... ), but it's definitely not my sound. But if you like to discover the Czech metal underground, and you have a liking for this sort of metal, then give it a try.

(KK)

www.crystalprod.cz