Doom Side of the Moon – “Doom Side of the Moon” [Album Review]

Kyle Shutt of The Sword fame gathered together a bunch of like-minded doom artists and created a cover of the entirety of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon. Speaking of the record’s birth, Shutt had this to say: “the idea came to me after getting baked and wanting to hear a heavy version of ‘Time’… I thought, why not just cover the whole album?” And so, along with Bryan Richie, Santiago Vela III, Alex Marrero, Jason Frey and Joe Cornetti, Shutt created Doom Side of the Moon.

Doom Side of the Moon is a fun take on one of the seminal rock records of all time, giving the whole thing a light doom feel. The heavy metal version of “Time” that Shutt spoke of wanting to hear? That’s here, and it is one of the best tracks on the record. There’s a bigger emphasis on the doom sound in “Time” than there is throughout a good amount of the rest of the album. Indeed, although this is named Doom Side of the Moon, there isn’t a whole lot different here from the original.

This is Dark Side of the Moon, with elements of doom scattered throughout. The riffs are generally heavier, the vocals are deeper and you get moments of elongated fuzz as you would in a doom record, but for me at least, I’d rather still listen to the Pink Floyd original. Shutt and the gang’s versions of classics such as “Money”, “Great Gig in the Sky” and the aforementioned “Time” are simply not quite as good as the originals. I’d have loved for this album to be heavier and more different from the classic.

Doom Side of the Moon is good fun and everyone performs well, but it is just a slightly heavier version of the original. It would have been great if the album was heavier, moving away that little bit more from the Pink Floyd original.

Doom Side of the Moon Track Listing:

01. Speak To Me
02. Breathe
03. On The Run
04. Time
05. Great Gig in the Sky
06. Money
07. Us and Them
08. Any Colour You Like
09. Brain Damage
10. Eclipse

Run Time: 38:32
Release Date: August 4, 2017

Watch the visualiser for the song “Money”