While the album itself isn’t bad at all, it’s more of a rock affair than a metal album. That said, they do have some really heavy riffs in here, but I guess the mid-tempo pace they employ and Keld’s bitter/sweet vocals make it have a bit more pop appeal than I was anticipating. I’m also pretty certain they should appeal to a rather large market because of this.
On that note, “Till The Day We Have To Depart” commences with some great blasting and a nice solid guitar riff that many bands would envy. Keld’s vocals have a grungy warble to them and Henrik’s lead is truly impressive.
“If I Can’t Come Down” is a nice tribute to a pair of towers that definitely came down and changed the world a decade ago, but the song is more about a personal loss and rather intimate as opposed to being a huge fanfare about the event.
I guess their subject matter is also a defining factor in their identity and “Silent Grave” starts off mournfully but eventually becomes uplifting while they never leave the cemetery in the lyrics.
Picking up the pace and having Stefan pounding the drums with far more determination on “Amount To Nothing” allows the guitars to get heavier too, making it a nice change up. and having “Dying All Over” following immediately on and actually being played a little faster is a great combination as it keeps things up-tempo even if the song is continually ebbing and flowing between its own paces.
“Way Out Of Here” has a slow but heavy guitar riff with a lot of fuzz on it to fill it out nicely which is carried on to “For Every Abandoned Hope” with its lengthy but very well played leads.
I really enjoyed “When You Read This” where they bouncy happy music is a complete opposite to the lyrics about finding a suicide note. I’d say something like this could easily get commercial airplay until someone bothered to read it more carefully. Oh well.
“Cemetery Blues” is a great bluesy number which sounds a little like H.I.M. towards the end, while the breakneck speed of “Spread My Ashes” and its leads by contrast easily makes it the fastest track on the album.
I guess there are many people that would wonder “What Kind Of God?” but the atheist in me wouldn’t bother, even if the last half of the question is: create this mess.
While songs on here are never really funky enough for the bass to be the prominent instrument, the thumpy gallop played by Lars on “Not On My Watch” is possibly the only time it almost feels like it’s driving the song rather than following placidly.
“Cancer Scare” ranges from heavy and fast to slow, light and morose then builds up again to be heavy but remaining slow thereby making the vocals more emotive.
Final track “What Could Have Been” has some almost acoustic bridges overlaid with heart wrenching leads to cement it firmly in the love ballad store, even if the lyrics are about a long lost sister rather than girlfriend and probably the reason it’s sung with far more emotion.
(5/10 Marco Gaminara)
18/02/2012 at 10:17 am
This one slipped through the net really. Please note we are not a site that generally reviews “rock music” so do not send it expecting it to be covered! Thanks to Marco for covering it in this instance!