Release Details
LABEL Pulverised RecordsRELEASED ON 1/25/2010
GENRES Death,Doom,Progressive,Melodic
In Mourning
Monolith
8.6
The 2008 debut Shrouded Divine from this Swedish act was a nice album for Opeth fans who thought that band had gone a little too soft or proggy. And while their second offering distances themselves from Opeth a little further, they are still a nice band for those wanting some more progressive, artistic and balanced take on melodic doom/death metal.
From opener “For You to Know,” fans will immediately notice more of a focus of choppy, direct riffs and the slightly different vocal delivery of frontman Tobias Netzell, who along with his deep growl has adopted a higher register rasp/scream and a sort of semi-clean croon that are both actually a bit off-putting. They are not show stoppers, but certainly an element that detracts a little from the more aggressive music.
And while the aggression appears to have been stepped up (see “The Poet and the Painter”, “A Shape of Plague”, “With You Came Silence”), the band still employs the Opethian softer textures and tangents to their songs, just not as overtly and suddenly, as they more ingrained in the actual songs. Tracks like “Debris”, the surprisingly fierce aforementioned “The Poet and the Painter”, “The Smoke” and “Pale Eye Revelation”, have interwoven melodies, some proggy 70s haze and acoustics scattered about that bring Opeth influence further to the forefront, but on the whole, the tracks seem a bit harsher and urgent than the previous album or many other Opeth inspired peers.
Some of the band’s early Finn-Doom influence surfaces to for the rending start of 12 minute standout closer “The Final Solution (Entering the Black Lodge)” that will appease the fans on Insomnium, Swallow the Sun and such with its somber lope. Rounded out b a perfect production and all the confidence and polish of a veteran act, the end result is a high quality album from a band that has all the makings of yet another Swedish great.
