Doomed is one of my favourite catharsis tracks of all time. Not a lot of music out in the world is written with the purpose of embracing the darkness within, and seeing it as it is. Not trying to spin the negativity into positivity or some sort of light at the end of the tunnel makes this song so grounded and real, and everybody who's learned the hard way that not everyone gets a happy ending can see themselves in the lyrics.
An unusual mix of electronics and rock elements oscillate throughout the runtime, matching the highs and lows of the song. I always appreciate a skilled use of calmer sections to contrast the more intense ones. Being the intro track of That's The Spirit, it does its job well of representing the album as a whole and the general sound that the rest of the tracklist has, and even though That's The Spirit wasn't their first foray into incorporating electronics with rock, it definitely does it better than Sempiternal and arguably amo, considering that amo is more of a pop album than rock in the first place.
The lyrical content stands out in this track, Oli Sykes is a phenomenal writer and artist and particularly at evoking emotion. Doomed's main lyrical idea undoubtedly stems from "So come rain on my parade, 'cause I wanna feel it." The concept of being in a dark place and/or time for so long that you start to accept it and even love it, it's a theme that appears a lot throughout the song, and it is a concept familiar to those who've dealt with prolonged mental illness, bad relationships, family issues among many tragic others.
What I love about Doomed is that it doesn't try to pretend and convince you that everything will be okay, in fact it does quite the opposite, but there's something very comforting about acknowledging that you really are where you are at the bottom of the well, instead of pretending that you'll wake up at the top tomorrow. When I got tired of people telling me to stay positive and look on the bright side, this song was here to tell me that "yeah, you're in a bad place and you're gonna be here for a while, but that's okay, even if you aren't," and that meant so much more than the former could ever.
This isn't one of those songs by a metal band where I can commend their members for their individual technical prowess (not to say that they aren't talented). Bring Me The Horizon is a band that, when creating music, always seem to have a vision and creative spark that surpasses the individual, their instruments and vocals all melt together into one beautiful idea. A lot of credit goes to Jordan Fish and Oli Sykes for spearheading the writing process, they make their songs so refined and outstanding in such a way that it feels impossible to make what they make.
Bring Me The Horizon has an impressive discography and I can't quite say this is their most unique track stylistically and musically, but it's definitely high up there. When it comes to pushing the limits, no one else does it quite like the British five-piece does, and Doomed is just one of the many great examples of their quality.
Rating: 5/5