I have tremendous amount of respect and admiration for the works of Novembers Doom, as evidenced by several reviews of mine for this US atmospheric doomdeath band. So when I learned that Novembers Doom guitarist Vito Marchese is behind The Kahless Clone I was all ears, ready to listen and imbibe his solo instrumental effort. To be truthful, getting on the same page with An Endless Loop was not an immediate occurrence, but I kept the EP in my rotation, until it clicked just recently.

My original problem with An Endless Loop was its seeming lack of the strong central seed, the drive that just grabs and doesn’t let go. Just about every composition takes long time to develop, and even then the material presented by The Kahless Clone remains very observational. But then, when darkness and gloominess of the EP finally clicked, it is that same bystander observational withdrawnness that made me appreciate it.

Once in the proper mood, dark piano followed by hefty towering guitars in Leave This Place with Me brings it home and makes sense. And brooding snappy bass, the ominous percussion, the feeling of the hospital bed when the person is more than halfway gone is hooked up to the artificial machine, the laboring breathing rhythms of Everything You See Is Gone – there is full-bodied tragic melodic doom in An Endless Loop, no doubt. It is just not very obvious and jumping at you on the surface. You have to be patient and let it come to you. The intrigue whether the person made it in Everything You See Is Gone, the soundtrack of a gloomy fall day in the closer of A Somber Reflection, all set to an irregular heart beating rhythms – I am now able to sit back and say that in An Endless Loop Vito Marchese was able to bring the gloom out, and he has done it in the absence of powerful deathy vocals or crushing production heaviness. Just him and his thoughts.