Not content to simply reissue the extensive back catalog of old school Maryland doom metallers Revelation, heavy metal archivists Shadow Kingdom have also stepped up to released the new album from the recently reconvened combo, releasing their For The Sake Of No One late in 2009. Anyone that followed the mighty Revelation back during their Rise Above/Hellhound days knows that the band constantly evolved from one album to the next, with their earlier records drawing heavily from the traditional doom of Sabbath, Vitus, and Trouble, but then gradually incorporating more progressive elements as time went on. Coming fourteen years after their classic Yet So Far album, For The Sake Of No One remains on this proggy trajectory, with a sound that incorporates even more psychedelic and melodic qualities than before, while still sticking with the slow, the low, and the gloomy. The first thing that struck me when I first thre this on was how much the album reminds me of British psych-doom rockers Winters, not just in the nasally, plaintive melodic crooning, but also in the extremely melodic, almost poppy songwriting; these guys are consistently crushing, with songs like "A Matter of Days" and "Offset" delivering superbly dark and doleful atmospheric doom, but there are some amazingly gorgeous moments on here such as "Canyons", which almost comes off like some sort of dreamy, heavy slowcore at first, before it unfurls into a quasi-Sabbath groove and some soaring metal soloing that still keeps rooted in a sort of indie heaviness. The band mixes in their progressive rock influences (and especially a heavy Rush influence) along with psychedelia and pounding NWOBHM into their creeping massive doom, highlighting tracks like "Vigil" with its throbbing bass line and moody melodic lead work that moves into a rocking gallop at the end, and the slow, brooding doom of the title track that closes the album. I'd have to rate this as one of the most atmospheric and melodic Maryland doom albums that I have in my collection.

It should be noted that this album features the classic early Revelation lineup of John Brenner on guitar and vocals, bassist Bert Hall and drummer Steve Branagan, who all played on Rev's classic 1991 debut Salvation's Answer on Rise Above. This is also the exact same lineup as the band Against Nature, which is sort of weird...you've got two current bands with different names but the exact same lineup. You can make the distinction between Revelation's classic prog-tinged doom sound and the much proggier Against Nature, I guess, but fans of one band are certainly going to dig the other, their sounds are obviously somewhat intertwined. Revelation is definitely the doomier of the two bands though, and anyone into the classic Maryland doom sound of bands like Asylum, Iron Man, Wretched, Unorthodox, Pentagram, and Internal Void should pick up anything and everything from these doom elders.