Impending Doom: “Towards The Light” EP Review
Over the past five years, Christian metal legend Impending Doom has blessed us with three EPs. This includes their most recent release in early 2025 Towards the Light. The four-piece from Southern California has a collective history of writing material about the end times and the eternal struggle between God and Satan. They have even coined the term “gorship” to describe their style of worship, a mashup of the words “gore” and “worship.” While some may question this as worship, we should remember that the act of worship is diverse and deeply personal.
Towards The Light EP Review
Tracks: 5
Length: 11:08
Release Date: February 7, 2025
Label: Independent
The EP starts with the bold opener “Christ is King.” It provides a powerful heavy start that accompanies a soft spoken rendition of Psalm 23. This sets the tone of what to expect on the rest of the EP. It leads into “Punishment,” which provides that typical Impending Doom sound that we’ve heard over the last 15 years. That distorted guitar sound gets you stomping your feet as it drives the song. It’s so methodical and heavy. Something that I appreciate about Brook and Impending Doom is their spiritual boldness in the writing process, as evidenced in this song, declaring how through Christ, we will never experience the punishment of our sin.
“Pick up the weight of the world, smash it again, again.”
I love this line as it points out how Jesus picks up the weight of the world so we don’t have to. It’s a message of hope when it feels like we’ve got heavy burdens on our shoulders.
Next is the title track of the EP, “Towards the Light.” It continues to have that typical sound full of chugging brutal bass lines. But they introduce some new elements, like the operatic moment right before the breakdown. This was a great touch to show the diversity of their musical skills. The double bass running rampant highlights the talent level on this song and this song shows the overall skill this band brings to the table.
Impending Doom has put out some interesting song titles with songs like “Murderer,” “Satantic Panic” and now “Snakes & Saints.” This track continues the drive from the previous song, but Brook’s growl is the driving force on this song. He has such an unique growl that separates him from other metal vocalists. It’s guttural and deep, but you can still make out some of the lyrics. This song is an incredibly timely song written for the attention of the country and society. It’s focused on sharing mercy with others and that we are just human and we can make mistakes, but God doesn’t. It’s a compassionate song that is written to remind us to pray for those who don’t know God.
“And I pray for the ones that are going through Hell. Pray for the ones that can’t see through the veil. Show us mercy.”
A great song and message as it rides into the last song “Will You See God?” They move from encouraging the church to pray for others, straight to asking people: Do you see God and will you see Him before it’s too late? This song has a brutal, technical and drawn out tempo, but drawn out isn’t a negative thing. The pacing just highlights the significance of what is being shared through the lyrics.
“Will you see God? Will you face the flames? Will you see nothing at all? We all will find out soon enough.”
The song poses raw, honest questions about our expectations of encountering God, urging us all to reflect before time runs out.
Overall, the Towards The Light EP is a great reminder of just how good Impending Doom is. From how they write the lyrics to the deep, distorted bass lines, Impending Doom is clearly one of the best in the Christian metal scene. I appreciate overall on this EP how the music doesn’t overshadow the vocals and that you can pull out the message that is being screamed. There are times in metal when the music will overthrow the vocals and it can sound like a mess. But, the production is done really neat and balanced.
If there’s one downside, it’s that this EP is too short, which was echoed by other reviewers. Just when the song would pull you in, it was over and you were on to the next one. There’s only 5 songs on a roughly 10-11 minute EP. Not enough, but good news as the band announced late last year that they are putting out their first full-length album since 2018. For now, enjoy Towards the Light and we’ll keep checking the socials for any news of a release date of the new record.
