You can never trust other blogs. I guess that is why you read my stuff in the first place. I heard great things about this one. Even their own press is misleading. This is just traditional heavy metal with a great deal of respect for Black Sabbath.This is the second doom band from Finland I have reviewed today. In this case I use doom more loosely The vocals are plaintive and sound like Uriah Heap if they were bored and left the keyboards at home. It is a little more on the proto metal side and dealing in retro sounds. By the second song 'the DownFall" I am already getting bored. The bland vocals are the worst offender in this regard.All the tired metal tropes are paraded about here and turned up 11. If Spinal Tap had been a serious band they might have sounded like this.
"Haxan" is heavier. The guitar take on a more sludged rumble. The vocals go into a throaty bark. This compensates for a great deal. The vocals sound more like James Hetfield singing power metal when they come back in. There is a darker more solemn sense of melody to the last song "House of Mourning". This fall within the boundaries of doom. It is also more interesting than the previous songs. The song drops down into an acoustic guitar before predictably building back up. The they jam out into heavy metal glory, like all the other heavy metal songs that seek glory in the same manner. `
The album does get better as it goes along. the album does get better as it progresses and more aggressive vocals surface. This is normally opposite how I feel as I prefer singing to growling or screaming, in this case the more throaty vocals work better. I will give this a 7.5. The album sound good, it is just the vocal preferences nag at me, but if you like traditional heavy metal and Candlemass is too dark and dramatic for you then you might like these guys.
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