I’ve compiled this list not as a “best of” for the wide blanket of doom metal in 2019 but to illustrate what doom metal is/was beneath the surface in 2019… and where I think it was most interesting and overlooked. From my own point of view these albums were underrepresented and/or passed by quickly by media outlets and some for admittedly valid reasons. So, here are some bands that stood out to me (for GOOD reasons) as I dug through doom metal’s innards throughout 2019. There are a hundred or so great bands that I don’t mention here which I’ve already reviewed, covered, mentioned, or put in my Top 50 for this year so hit the search icon to see if I’ve already covered something vital, otherwise let me know what I’ve missed. Ratings don’t matter, think for yourself!

Artist	Gévaudan
Title [Type/Year]	Iter [LP/2019]
Rating [3.5/5.0]	BUY/LISTEN on Bandcamp!

British epic doom metal quartet Gévaudan explore lore and legends of deus ex machina as the fates of men are transformed by unjust gods. The doom they bring upon the world is serious, intense, and might just be the perfect balance between modern day soul-stirrers (Pallbearer, Seer, Spirit Adrift) and the emotive geists of the past (Solstice, Warning, Solitude Aeturnus). Well, epic doom metal has better comparisons out there in the wilds but you get the idea; These fellows have a bit of a modern edge thanks to wide swing of influences they’ve modulated their traditional doom metal sound within. The vocalist has a major set of pipes, plenty of heavy metal personality there with a softer side that is enhanced by a tinge of psychedelia around the edges of Gévaudan‘s freely breathing compositions. An energizing doom metal album that is much more of an epic than I’d expected. Check out my favorite track “The Great Heathen Army” for the full effect.

Artist	Fvneral Fvkk
Title [Type/Year]	Carnal Confessions [LP/2019]
Rating [4.0/5.0]	BUY/LISTEN on Bandcamp!

If a stupid name bothers you, what are you doing reading a website named Grizzly Butts? German epic doom metal band Fvneral Fvkk have an hour of soul-flattening epics aimed at the wrongs committed by the church, specifically a long and incredibly brutal history of those who’d use their power to sexually abuse their ‘flock’. How did I miss this album? I didn’t, just hadn’t enough time to really get to it and ended up placing it here because it deserved a mile-long conversation and admiration. I know the image of Christ’s tears dripping as blood from uh, the raped ‘rears’ of priests victims might seem jocular at first, if you’re a man-child like me, but this merely grips the listeners attention as ‘Carnal Confessions’ alludes to the many abuses that come with religion as governance. The assumption that only the best intentioned human beings end up in positions of religious power is demystified a thousand times and a truly rotten reality that sits next to the delusional idiocy of followers. The Fvneral Fvkk experience is one of many sides, all of them lead by a powerful epic doom metal sound. ‘Carnal Confessions’ is a (mostly) serious epic doom metal album that knows how to have some fun here and there.

See, a full review from me would have just been a thousand words decrying the abuses of Christianity over the years and I’d felt like I’ve written that review many times. The lyrics progress by touching upon homophobia in the church, the rapist Catholic school for boys that spawned several serial killers (including Charles Manson), Nuns who brutally tortured and assaulted children for years with no repercussions, a Priest who has the major hots for Jesus’ rod and well, you can imagine how dark this album turns when you take a closer look. Uh, and the music! This epic doom metal band supposedly features members of Fäulnis, Ophis and Crimson Swan… I would add Voidhaven, too. So that should suggest how epic, heavy their sound is as a polished and well-experienced German doom metal band. They cite Solitude Aeternus, Count Raven, Procession, Candlemass as influences and that makes good sense.

Artist	Raventale
Title [Type/Year]	Morphine Dead Gardens [LP/2019]
Rating [3.5/5.0]	BUY/LISTEN on Bandcamp!

Of course you can expect a few funeral doom records on any list from me but, did you expect a full-on funeral doom album from long-running Ukranian ‘atmospheric blackened metal’ act Raventale? Musician Astaroth Merc, who has been leading this project since 2005 was certainly due for some change in terms of this, his longest running project but the assumption was that he was leaning towards a mixture of depressive black metal, ‘dark metal’ and melodic death/doom. So, if you’ve no past history with the group and their atmospheric black metal sound (‘Dark Substance of Dharma’ is pretty good!) then this won’t be such a shock, just a depressive and quite nicely produced funeral doom record that moves at a reasonable pace. Eye of Solitude and Shape of Despair come to mind with a focus on slow, dramatic piano lead melodies that develop inward as the bleak atmosphere of each piece intensifies. The artist has a gift of creating works that conjure a deep-set introversion, an internal darkness that is not desperate but still struggling, fully aware of the desolate landscape conjured. ‘Morphine Dead Gardens’ is “one note” in that sense as the artist creates from a very real pool of misery, a constantly nagging downward pull of life’s horrifying gravity. I love it, fantastic use of keyboards/piano with a reasonably heavy guitar tone that crisps the edges of the production nicely.

Artist	Taiwaz
Title [Type/Year]	The Uninvited Guest [LP/2019]
Rating [4.0/5.0]	BUY/LISTEN on Bandcamp!

One of the best kept secrets out of Uppsala, Sweden throughout the second half of the 80’s, Taiwaz formed amidst all of the idiotic poodle boy rocker shite of the era — Stomping it all to shit with a heavy traditional doom metal sound and quickly becoming a cult act that few would remember beyond ’91. Before everyone decided they hated the ‘The Wild Hunt’ album from Watain in 2013 that band (also from Uppsala, mostly) covered a Taiwaz song (“Play With the Devil“) as a B-side on an early single for that album. Interestingly enough Taiwaz had reformed by then and somehow Watain would release thier song before they had officially put it out on their debut ‘I Am All’ in early 2014. It was a great album of occult traditional heavy metal always delivered with their signature creep n’ crushing sense of pace. A heavy/doom metal album, if you will. This follow-up to that half-old/half-new debut comes five years later and now some of those associations make more sense: Gottfrid Åhman (ex-In Solitude, Reveal) had a hand in both albums (mixing) and played the guitar solo on the Watain version of the song I’d mentioned previously.

Anyhow, senseless Swedish metal nerd trivia aside, this is a menacing ‘old school’ heavy/doom metal album. Very straightforward and powerful sound, big doom metal riffs, and for my own taste I feel like vocalist Urban Ferm has just the right diction for ‘evil’ heavy metal circa the late 80’s. Their sound couldn’t be more honest, as it was recorded in their practice space and features a nice ‘live in studio’ atmosphere that is entirely appropriate for a cryptic heavy metal album from a cult act. The only thing I’m wanting after two carefully written albums is some greater variation in pace, something a little faster and a bit slower, to push out into the extremes very slightly.

Artist	Rottendawn
Title [Type/Year]	Occult [LP/2019]
Rating [3.5/5.0]	BUY/LISTEN on Bandcamp!

What is the best way to introduce Finnish death n’ doom band Rottendawn? Well, what if the drummer from Antidote / bassist in Impaled Nazarene, two guitarists (one from Protected Illusion/Sinisthra) and set Pasi Äijö, fresh from a long stint of Unholy revivals this last decade, in the middle on bass/vocals. Their sound apparently came into better focus with the addition of Äijö a musical personality lead by a twinge of classic doom metal, some 90’s stoner/sludge riffs, and a death/doom metal spirit roughing up any too-smoothed edges. It isn’t exactly death/doom and ‘Occult’ is too rife with morbidity to be considered traditional doom (or sludge) metal; I’d instead describe Rottendawn‘s sound as a funereal death n’ roll sort of event from the sunless Helsinki point of view. A sluggish desert psych roll and cathedral-eqsue keyboards on tracks like “Dawn Dwellers” should pull things away from the expectation of a ‘Gracefallen’ style warmth, ‘Occult’ is too stark, sludgy and rigidly dark of an album to lump in with later Unholy. “Burn ‘Til Burial” is the most obvious highlight here with it’s southern rock rhythmic swings and slow-crawling main riff but the biggest jam is the groove-ridden, gates-flinging-open organ grinder of “Dusk Demons”.

Artist	Pombajira
Title [Type/Year]	Pombajira [LP/2019]
Rating [3.25/5.0]	BUY/LISTEN on Bandcamp!

Brazilian heavy/doom metal trio Pombajira features guitarist/vocalist HellSon Röcha who is best known as the original guitarist (second bassist) for celebrated war metal band Grave Desecrator, who is joined by Blizzard (of Blizzard Records) and drummer Thiago Splatter whom you’ll recognize from the current line-up of blackened heavy/thrashers Power From Hell. No doubt you’ll be expecting some kind of black metal inspired heavy metal from the group and hey, fair enough though Pombajira focus more on traditional heavy metal from an early Celtic Frost point of view with a mildly stoner-afflicted doom metal sound. Raw and mid-paced the reverb heavy atmospheric sound of this stark-raving heavy metal album doesn’t really appear versatile until “Vital Lucifer” grinds in with its death-grinding bass tone beneath a pretty nasty heavy metal song. In terms of doom metal I’d say this is pretty lite on actual doom and has more in common with Vulcano or Venom circa ’85 or so. I love how noisy and over the top the recording is, it gives Pombajira a raw and exciting presence that they only partially exploit with their fairly simple, stoically dark songwriting. If you liked that Taiwaz album this should be a nice extension of that mood.

Artist	Tenebra
Title [Type/Year]	Gen Nero [EP/2019]
Rating [3.25/5.0]	BUY/LISTEN on Bandcamp!

Tenebra are a fairly new heavy blues act by way of four youngsters from Bologna, Italy with a dark and doomed side by way of big-swinging Acid Witch grooves and a pretty standard stoner/heavy psych sound. The bass guitarist has a frickin’ gorgeous tone, round and smooth in the mix right where Sabbath would’ve set it circa ’71. Their songwriting has that ‘just broke into stoner metal’ feeling of early Trouble but otherwise a pretty standard occult rock/doom metal experience without a tone of surprises. Wouldn’t change a thing about thier sound but I’d definitely encourage less all-out belting on the vocals and digging deeper into harmonies and more intimate moments. A good first impression.

Artist	Void King
Title [Type/Year]	Barren Dominion [LP/2019]
Rating [4.0/5.0]	BUY/LISTEN on Bandcamp!

From barren dominion, an ownership of ruin and a resolve within a shared desert of justified absurdism, pours lessons learned harshly from the velveteen roar of “stoner doom n’ roll” band Void King. The emotive power of Jason Kindred‘s vocals have apparently had some scars beaten into them since ‘There is Nothing’ (2016), he’d always had big pipes but never such a directly wounded tonality as heard on the first three tracks that open up this second full-length from the Indianapolis, Indiana band. The vocals themselves aren’t the most varied part of the whole undertaking, though. Void King have always ridden the fence between polished 2000’s stoner metal slickness and the chunking darkness of modern US doom metal catharsis but here they dip a toe or two into darker waters and enhance their already finely dynamic sense of full album composition. The listening experience is a major reason why I’d become a Void King fan back in 2016 and their ability to shift mood and modus without losing a certain tonal thread that guides the full listen; They’ve retained this skill and continue to outclass a lot of their peers in the stoner, doom, and mildly heavy blues/southern rock realms. All of this said, these aren’t particularly catchy or heavily repeatable songs so I didn’t find myself rushing back for a second listen anytime I’d spin the whole of ‘Barren Dominion’.

Artist	Nocturnal Weed
Title [Type/Year]	Smoke Inhaler [LP/2019]
Rating [3.5/5.0]	BUY/LISTEN on Bandcamp

German sludge/doom metal band Nocturnal Weed notably features members of death metal band Khaos, who put out a decent demo earlier this year, and you should be able to hear influences from death/doom and modern black metal within their otherwise very stoner friendly slow-motion dirges. These are extended grooves, big atmospheric stoner pieces that are uncomplicated and often extend beyond the 10 minute mark. So, don’t dive in thinking you’re getting the immediate satisfaction of a death/doom record, but a meditative burner. ‘Smoke Inhaler’ lands in between the heady dirges of stoner/sludge metal groups like Bongripper and the deathly roar of bands like Disbelief or Coffin Torture. It does not express as a substantive release upon first impression due to unfocused song structures and extended pieces without any meaningful guiding melody, instead the value lies in the meditative effect conjured. It is a damned heavy album, too.

Artist	Pylar
Title [Type/Year]	Horror Cósmyco [LP/2019]
Rating [4.0/5.0]	LISTEN on Bandcamp!

Sevilla, Spain based experimental doom act Pylar have channeled the darkest works of cosmic horror fiction and extreme metal’s atmospheric dissonance for this heavily drone-sauced fifth album ‘Horror Cósmyco’. With a legacy that includes a decade in Spanish avant-doom/drone act Orthodox it should be no surprise that Pylar are ‘out there’ in terms of their mutations upon doom metal but this record should prove a challenging listen for those not inclined towards drone. This band undoubtedly use improvisation and live modulation (the suggestion is that some elements are ‘randomized’) while a generally solid and present rhythm section includes tribalistic doom beats and plenty of breaks into heavy riffing. The atmosphere is even heavier than the riffs and this is helped by the feeling that the recording is ‘live in studio’ or at least partially improvised. Even if you do find it to be cryptic and meandering doom excess I felt that Pylar have done exactly what Skáphe + Wormlust did with their ‘Kosmískur hryllingur‘ collaboration album earlier this year: Perfectly capture the feeling of otherworldly horror while using their own unique sonic language, centered around a base of their metal sub-genre niche. “Negros Abismos sueñan mi Muerte” is the most challenging piece in the mix as it doesn’t flow exactly as well as the two track previous but this does moderately resolve itself as the full listen completes with my favorite song “Tenebrosa Armonia”. I think this will be either a major joy, or a major pain depending on the doom metal fan because this is experimental music, a ghostly avant-doom metal experience. When I entered the experience wanting rhythms and not feeling, I was irritated. When I entered the experience wanting to feel something, I was struck with a great pang of anxiety as the last song finished and found it entirely distorting.

Artist	Esogenesi
Title [Type/Year]	Esogenesi [LP/2019]
Rating [3.5/5.0]	BUY/LISTEN on Bandcamp!

Things do not get less challenging from here, doom hounds! In fact, this Italian death/doom metal band don’t offer a minute of satisfaction as they pluck, twist, and growl their way through a very complex nearly non-musical debut full-length full of slow and indignant passages to other dimensions. The sound fits the ideology and theme where unknown dimensions, and a dark philosophy pertaining to the cosmos themselves is explored. I understand that you’ll likely go into that first song, “Abominio”, thinking eh, more of that pretty atmospheric death/doom we’re getting so much of these days but the virtue of Esogenesi as a fully rounded concept includes the creation of unnatural portals, experimental waves towards the unknown and they do so without succumbing to popular tropes in atmospheric doom metal. The way forward is perhaps comparable to certain eras of My Dying Bride along the way, but they’ve approached this darker sub-genre of doom with progressive metal capability rather than the very trendy post-rock/post-metal cliches we heard so often as this decade progressed. If you love the more crooked and experimental side of death/doom that’d birthed from funeral doom’s excesses in the mid-90’s this record is a very polished and clean example of that gnarled modus. If you’re not keen to follow the thread of riffs these Italians bring to their debut I don’t know if it has any hope of resonating as ‘mood’ or background music because these compositions are so elaborately strung together that you’ll need to sit on that edge of movement to ‘get it’. From my perspective, anyhow, it was a very uncomfortable, anxietous trip.

Artist	Saltas
Title [Type/Year]	PROMO MMXVIII [Demo/2019]
Rating [3.75/5.0]	BUY/LISTEN on Bandcamp!

Not only has N. Rudolfsson reinvigorated Runemagick, Sacramentum, and extended Heavydeath into Den Tunga Döden these last few years but he’s been at work on this primitive, brutal undercurrent of Hell’s molten emanations in the form of death/doom duo Saltas which also features Irkallian Oracle member C.J. on vocals/drums. After two demos, which proved compilation worthy, this third was recorded in preparation for their impending debut full-length in the first quarter of 2020. This is basically slow motion war metal, there is no way around that thought once you’ve had it! 33 RPM Blasphemy, spitting and roaring under the low buzzing constant of diabolic primal riffing that is both challenging and gorgeously textural as it stomps along. “The Expulsion of the Self” is a phantasm of great strength compelling the body and the soul down the razor-sharp staircase to Hades. The effect should appeal to fans of drone/doom, primitive death/doom, and folks have been keen to compare it to Bog Body for that chunking Goatlord-esque feeling it creates. A challenging acquired taste for many, I’m sure.

Artist	Hexgrafv
Title [Type/Year]	Ritual [LP/2019]
Rating [3.5/5.0]	BUY/LISTEN on Bandcamp!

Everyone flocked to Ozium Records when Saint Karloff‘s latest record was positively reviewed by basically everyone who’d heard it earlier this year and yet few stuck around for Jönköping, Sweden based stoner/doom trio Hexgrafv‘s second album ‘Ritual’. From my point of view I’d taken one look at the art and sat through about 30 seconds of their sound before I wanted to own that LP. Very distant, huge fuzz tone, and altogether exactly the right stuff that Swedes have been doing with that big n’ nasty ‘Dopesmoker’ sound for a couple decades now. As much as I like the trend of extended songs making up a quarter or a half of a stoner/doom metal album in recent years it only really works with a certain sort of band that I’m sure this sect of doom fandom knows all too well. I dabble therein. Occult tones but vibrant and earthen progressions make ‘Ritual’ an easy listen that brought to mind Alastor as much as it did that last Monolord record. Good company to be in and a fine niche experience for the lifer.

Artist	Clouds Taste Satanic
Title [Type/Year]	Second Sight [LP/2019]
Rating [3.25/5.0]	BUY/LISTEN on Bandcamp!

Instrumental stoner post-doom metal quartet Clouds Taste Satanic had one of their most spirited years yet releasing a duo of LPs, ‘Evil Eye’ and ‘Second Sight’ in 2019. Hold on, before you go running fast away from that ‘instrumental’ word, actually just go… Whomever is left has a righteously spiritual Satanic artifact in their hands that’ll run about 80 minutes between the two albums, each consisting of two 20 minute songs that feature three parts and all of it designed around the Satanic bible’s “The Theory and Practice of Satanic Magic” section. Why have I bumped ‘Second Sight’ on here? This is easily the most intricate, focused, and possessed Clouds Taste Satanic have sounded since forming in 2013 and across six full-lengths since then. The main event is the title track that kicks things off, delivering on the promise of a dark stoner trip in three distinguishable parts. “Black Mass” is equally eventful but not as evocative as that first half of the record. For instrumental stoner music the New York based quartet have always done a fine job of making entertainment out of voiceless music, I’d like to see what they can do beyond the bluesy stage-rocking presence though with all the bells and whistles possible.

Artist	Holy Death
Title [Type/Year]	MMXIX [Demo/2019]
Rating [3.5/5.0]	BUY/LISTEN on Bandcamp!

A very random Bandcamp click on Halloween had me sucked into this unassuming demo from Las Vegas, Nevada area ‘desert doom’ act Holy Death. The project is anonymous and all that is known thus far is their location and the impact crater left by this brutal death-worshiping doom/sludged crawl of depraved proportions. Definitely has a bit of that Conan/Black Bow Records edge with a pretty solid self-production, I’d assume Holy Death is created by just one person because the vision is fairly driven and specific, including the quiet self-release on Bandcamp. “Guillotine Baptism” and its lyrics is the main event here, a soured and misanthropic bout of nihilism set to a gigantic stoned groove. “No Flowers” is no less effective, showcasing the bass guitar tone more clearly within its more expansive composition.

Artist	Golden Core
Title [Type/Year]	Fimbultýr [LP/2019]
Rating [3.0/5.0]	BUY/LISTEN on Bandcamp!

A couple of 15-16 year old kids from Oslo, Norway playing an above-average lid of groove driven stoner/doom metal might appear like a manufactured gimmick at first, but Golden Core have done a fine job of finding a decent set of basic rhythms to work with. I’m not sure I personally care what age an artist is, plenty of my favorite punk and death metal records were written/performed by teen dorks in the 80’s. Tangents aside, ‘Fimbultýr’ is at the very least an impressive feat once you realize it is their second LP. The grooves are big but most of the guitar work is blandly textured, peaking in the middle of the 11+ minute “Runatal”. From there they find some more direct stoner metal hits, a quick little post-black metal ditty, and a Firebreather-esque groove on “Blod”. The album itself kind of lives and dies by the thought that it is average in motion, and beyond expectations for age. They’ve got many more rhythms to find, things to experience, and such but when I divorce my mind from all provenance it is a well-produced and moderately interesting stoner/doom mash-up with a lot of great ideas they’re not entirely bold enough to ‘go for’ just yet.

Artist	Vendel
Title [Type/Year]	Dirge [EP/2019]
Rating [3.25/5.0]	BUY/LISTEN on Bandcamp

A five piece Russian doom metal act out of Moscow that we’ve all been watching since 2017 with the hopes that they’d somehow write a Scald-worthy epic, Vendel are certainly within that realm of true metallic epic doom metal on this latest original song “Dirge”. The song itself has more in common with Dawn of Winter or similarly ‘epic’ German doom metal. The vocalist is excellent here with a spirited and far over-the-top performance that suits the song incredibly well. The Saint Vitus and Manilla Road covers that round out the single aren’t essential for the Vendel experience but they are fine songs worthy of tribute in any case.

Artist	Space God Ritual
Title [Type/Year]	The Unknown Wants You Dead [LP/2019]
Rating [3.5/5.0]	BUY/LISTEN on Bandcamp

Have you summoned any Ancient Ones lately? Portland, Oregon’s Space God Ritual have been doing it for about a decade and they’ve gotten more weird, warped and intensely fraught with warnings against the auld shadows across the span of their five full-lengths. Folks most often compare them to the totally kooky vocal performances of The Lamp of Thoth and Arkham Witch and that makes good sense but I’d throw in The Wizar’d (or, later Cathedral) for some of their overt prog-rock influences and Lucifer’s Fall for the classic doom riffs and darker storytelling. Narrative is everything when following this bands jib and retaining greater value, the theater of the experience is the fun to be had and I’d emphasize fun rather than any sort of serious catharsis or whatever else you might expect from doom metal music. Doom will always be the exact right fit for expressing a Lovecraft obsession as evidenced by ‘The Unknown Wants You Dead’, but the multi-instrumental talents of musician Johan Sebastian Glamour is what’d drawn me back to this record several times this year.

Artist	Plateau Sigma
Title [Type/Year]	Symbols – The Sleeping Harmony of the World Below [LP/2019]
Rating [3.75/5.0]	BUY/LISTEN on Bandcamp

For their second full-length on the lauded Avantgarde Music label Italian funeral death/doom metal band Plateau Sigma are at their most progressive as they focus less on gigantic compressed grooves and more upon solemnity befitting of their tendency towards melodic death/doom style. Most often compared with early Anathema and sometimes even Novembers Doom for that ‘softer’ side, the band shifts gears to better emphasize that celebrated prettier side of their sound without becoming cloyingly emotive, expanding their own melodic language while cutting back on the bombast of their previous album for the sake of increased dynamic. This ends up being the most impressive release from the Ventimiglia based project to date thanks to much more mature engineering from vocalist/guitarist Francesco Genduso and a well worth it mastering job from Magnus Lindberg. The caveat is that it isn’t so much a ‘heavy’ record in terms of guitar work and rather a heavily atmospheric experience that is lengthy and complex enough to warrant several listens.

Artist	Fungoid Stream
Title [Type/Year]	The Winds Among the Stars [LP/2019]
Rating [3.25/5.0]	BUY/LISTEN on Bandcamp!

Two funeral doom albums to end the list this year? Yes but, uh, Fungoid Stream are something particularly different or, they were extremely novel back in 2004 when they they released ‘Celaenus Fragments’, an ambient funeral doom record that featured heavy use of keyboards and wretchedly programmed drums. It bears mention that funeral doom’s history was very well hidden from the mainstream for many years and acts like Fungoid Stream are of a different much more earnestly exploratory tradition of ambitious and perfectly jank-filled sounds back in the day. From my own perspective ‘The Winds Among the Stars’ is both a nostalgic catalyst for memories of mind-expansion (in fact, they’re still using Lovecraft poems as lyrics) and a curious extension of their original vision, increasingly resembling great washes of oceanic synth atop the slow-growled bedroom funeral doom they’ve been long known for. “The lightning seems dark and the darkness seems light” is the great beast to conquer on the tracklist, a patience testing avant-garde foray into realms that shows a need to continually experiment despite the infrequent choice to release that Fungoid Stream intends. If you can make your way through that track the rest will be a great spectacle of watery celestial ambiance.

If I missed your favorite doom metal album from 2019 I’m not surprised! E-mail me or hit me up on twitter if you want me to review your favorite doom metal album. If you’re in a noise rock band and you want a review of your latest, hit the Contact page and send me a copy, keep in mind I lean towards traditional doom metal, death/doom metal, funeral doom, ah well… anything but bad gothy ‘beauty and the beast’ doom, had enough of it in the 90’s.