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At
first, I was at odds with grunting, cookie monster,
growling vocalist. After years of listening to
metal, a young me thought it was unacceptable to go for
the sub levels of Glenn Benton or David Vincent, the
contortions of Mayhem's Dead or the high pitch wail of
dozens of Stanists.. But
time passed and I have grown with them, learning to love
brutality and its more exhilarating ramifications. Years after, the scenario seems to have
flipped. I am now sometimes at odds with melodic
vocalists. In no subgenre is this more evident than in
the downtrodden fields of doom metal. Exceptions to the
rule are clear; the dudes from Novembers Doom do it well
and Leif Endling from Candlemass has always been
intelligent enough to recruit vocalists with a range
and balls, but more than a handful of clean-vocalized
doom acts fail to match the potency of their music with
singers that have the power. It’s time to find that kind
of talent.
Such is one
of the strongest aspects of Griftegård’s Thomas Eriksson; a dude
with the melodic power and the strength to carry a very heavy
band and a very heavy burden, all with the natural sound of his
unstrained vocal chords. In “Drunk With Wormwood” he even goes
solo, accompanied by a piano and delivering what’s surprisingly
effective and could have been a healthy helping of cheese. He
does the same next to a watery guitar on “Punishment & Ordeal”.
What’s best about Eriksson is that he is obviously a man aware of his limitations.
His control is great and he is astute enough never to go for the
high end. When he strains his voice, it actually goes gruff.
Goddamn,
Candlemass move over because we’ll need a lot of room. The rest
of the tracks in this auspicious debut follow a very standard
and loyal doom pattern. Griftegård never
strays. As usual and as it should, these songs are based on
extended and tired riffs (the guitar tone is perfect, not too
fat, not too distorted, just heavy enough and lacking solos), a
steady but dragged and well-timed drumbeat, ominous
vocalizations that hover and haunt the music creating giant
movements. The flow is slow but fluid, it drags everything on
its path. It’s hard to speak of outstanding songs, because the
album is that even and solid.
Solemn,
Sacred, Severe shows a great performance that’s aided by the
excellent recording. Since I am writing this review based on
the download I can see no liner notes. So credit should go where
deserved. Wherever that is.
PS: Deaf
Sparrow limits the coverage of albums submitted by MP3 format. I
am old school, enjoy ‘products’ and like the real thing and I
also goddamn wish I had a physical copy of Solemn, Sacred,
Severe.
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