November is Doom - Sahg- "Born Demon"

Olav Iverson marches on as one of Norway's seminal doom bands. the open up with not only more of a traditional doom, but sound heading in the direction of power metal. The vocals are powerful and poignant. They have balls to them despite being higher pitched so do not sound cheesy like most power metal yodeling. The chorus is big and anthemic. The second song is more soulful, and blues based in the melodies but does not resonate as powerfully for me as the first song. The first doom song is the title track that follows. He vocals go up higher, but not in a falsetto more in a creepy Ozzy range. It is the first really Sabbath moment, but most of the Scandinavian bands do not worship Sabbath like their western counterparts. 

They kind of split the difference between the more power metal direction of the first song and traditional doom of the title on "Descendents of the Devil ". I think the key that makes this song work is how purposeful the vocals are. All too often vocals are an afterthought in metal even when they are sung, as since these guys write songs with vocals in mind it makes them shine in the darkness. The devil seems to be the subject of every song, which is fine with me. "Black Cross on the Moon" paints this theme in more of a Hammer Horror manner. They are almost thrashing  Wvil Immortal" which reminds me of "Ultimate Sin" era Ozzy. "Salvation Damnation" gallops forward with a great deal of grandiose aggression. 

"Killer Spirit" has a more rock n roll feel. In fact, it's at this point where the album as a whole begins to veer off in a more rock n roll direction. This is done with a really interesting flair on "Heksedans". More carefree backing vocals forming a chorus behind crunchy guitars. The last song is darker, and more doom focused on its dread inducing mood. I will give this one a 9.5, it has everything you might want from this kind of metal., Serving as proof there is more to Norway than just black metal. 

Northern Crown : "In a Pallid Shadow"

I do not review a great deal of power metal here. It is not because I like it and before I leave a long explanation of what not I will sum it up very quickly...it's not dark enough . This band takes elements of doom to fix that problem. Then they sound like Dio jaming with Uriah Heap . The riff to the first song reminds me of "Warmachine " by Kiss . The vocals are more power metal and the keyboards pushes them further in a Evergray direction. Where this works where power metal fails more often than not is this is darker. There is more melody infused in the song writing of the darkly more majestic "the Last Snowfall" , not sure how unholy snow is falling, so the lyrics are where these guys could stand to tighten up a bit. The pace of this one is more deliberate, but the doom influence seems to keep them from galloping off at every turn.

They lose the momentum on the ballad " Vivid Monochrome". It has just enough distortion in it's build up to qualify as a power ballad. "8 Hours" still pretty close to the altar of classic metal, with the keys dialed up in the mix. This dude has a decent enough voice he flirts with the lower end of his range in an attempt to sound more menacing. Granted the bar is pretty high as to what sounds menacing here given the amount of more extreme metal I cover. This song is however despite it's cool riffs less hooky vocally. There are moments where it makes me think of Candlemass. By the end of the song he goes up into his upper range. Given the fact that King Diamond is my favorite metal singer I do love a good metal yodel.

The last song finds them taking more of a prog turn at first as it opens with a keyboard solo. The song has a lot of power. Is it heavy? That depends on how you define heavy. It is very dynamic. During it's nine and a half minutes they back a great deal into it. Six and half minutes in the break everythin down into a more ballad like tone before cranking it back up again. I will give this one an 8.5 . If you are really into power metal round it up to a 9/