Playing in a band isn't supposed to be pretty or fair, but what happened to Middian was about as dogshit awful as it gets. Mike Scheidt's post-YOB project had every indication of surpassing YOB's already awe-inspiring output (and this, mind you, I base on “Dreamless Eye” alone), and then some do-nothing, go-nowhere band from – well, who the fuck cares, really? - hits them with a cease and desist order due to a trademarked name. If you can barely break even on tour, how are you going to pay for legal fees? The short answer is “You can't,” so Middian hung it up.

That would have been a completely disastrous turn of events had Scheidt not resurrected YOB. And, judging by the anguished roar that he lets loose at two minutes and 23 seconds into lead track “Burning the Altar,” he also channeled the rage and pent-up aggression of the Middian experience into The Great Cessation. Doom – be it traditional, crust, funeral, psychedelic, or whatever other sub-sub-genre's out there - is meant to be dour and slow, but here it's also furious. The riffs, the vocals, the deliberate, pummeling rhythm (courtesy of YOB alumni Travis Foster on drums and new bassist Aaron Reiseberg) – the song's a clenched fist. It seethes from start to finish, and as a statement of intent for The Great Cessation, you can't get any better.

You can, however, find equally strong songs. “The Lie That Is Sin” has more forward momentum – it's on par with “Dreamless Eye” or The Unreal Never Lived's “Quantum Mystic,” tempo-wise – and offers a strong vocal hook. The way Scheidt lets his clean croon plummet to the death growl, following that with some melodic, psychedelic guitar work, makes for multi-dimensional heaviness. That's sort of textbook YOB – they've got a knack for wresting as many dynamics out of their songs as possible – but it's taken to a new level here. The howls at the beginning of “Silence of Heaven” I'm ambivalent about, but otherwise its minimalistic, almost Sunn0)))-like approach serves as a crushing, effective interlude between “The Lie That Is Sin” and “Breathing from the Shallows,” another wall of doom that slices through you with some incendiary playing.

As with the YOB efforts in the past, there's one song where they lay it all out on the table and stretch out for 20-plus minutes. Here it's the title track and it's truly an epic. “The Great Cessation” starts off quietly, almost like a lament, then opens up with a beautiful riff that, if you'll forgive one more bit of grandiose writing, reaches up to the heavens from some darkened pit. It's as hopeful as it is hopeless and ends the album on as strong a note as it started. Listen, any band worth its salt can write a song that elicits an emotional response, but few can craft one that's so complex and multifaceted. That's one of the many reasons YOB's so far ahead of the curve not just in the doom genre, but as musicians in general.

Middian's death was unfortunate, but if that band had to cease in order for YOB to be reborn, I can't mourn its passing. The Great Cessation is a masterpiece and sets the bar so ridiculously high, it's not even worth comparing other doom albums to it. Highly recommended.YOB - The Great Cessation