After their comeback album “At War With Reality”, the lads from Gothenburg have certainly had a challenge ahead of them. With the departure of their guitar player Anders Björler, they were down a songwriter. How have they managed to work around this? Well let’s find out!
First off is the album intro track Der Windestand (German for “The Resistance”). Now I love a good orchestral into, and this is no exception. It was a great way to start, leading right into the album’s lead single To Drink From The Night Itself. The song itself is pretty good, definitely gets the blood pumping as a good melodeath single should. I can see why they chose this as the lead single, as it has some of the catchiest bits of the whole album. Good choice.
Something that came off very quickly while listening to the album was the that audio quality was quite muddy. There was no punch to it, like it was streamed on a bad connection to Spotify. Comparing it against the YouTube music video was enlightening as the YouTube version sounds much better, so maybe it was just my copy.
From the single to the rest of the record, I was struck by how much subtle variety there was. There was definitely an overarching theme which they stuck to like glue, but they changed it up quite a lot with their arsenal of riffs. Something I also noticed was that the songs got a bit better the further I got into the album. When I first started my listening it all sounded like the standard Swedish fare, but by the time I got to Daggers Of Black Haze, I truly understood what they were going for.
Unlike many of their contemporaries, they used many, MANY components on top of each other in places you wouldn’t expect. For example, there’s a lot of “atmospheric” lead guitar parts layered on top of fast sections, which works surprisingly well. This was particularly notable on The Colours Of The Beast, which really slowed things down and made the effect noticeable. There are however occasions where the riffs used don’t quite seem right. Like they came up with the riffs individually and put them sequentially into a song regardless as to the overall context. For the most part this isn’t that big of an issue, as they do change up quite quickly.
A huge standout is the vocals of Tomas Lindberg, who’s delivery is nothing short of amazing. It’s ferocious, primal, intense. I wish I could bottle that and drink it, as I imagine it’d be spicy like a hearty mulled wine. My hat off to that gentleman!
The album drew to a close with the fantastic The Mirror Black, a slow number that was the perfect finishing track. I loved how this also finished with an orchestral section, bookending the whole piece and drawing it to a close.
While it may have taken a few listens for the album to really grow on me, I’m glad I put in the effort. I would absolutely recommend this to any fans of melodic death metal, especially if they enjoy the band’s earlier material. Throw up those horns!
TRACK LISTING
Der Widerstand
To Drink From The Night Itself
A Stare Bound In Stone
Palace Of Lepers
Daggers Of Black Haze
The Chasm
In Nameless Sleep
The Colours Of The Beast
A Labyrinth Of Tombs
Seas Of Starvation
In Death They Shall Burn
The Mirror Black
