The first thing I noticed when picking up this album was the sleeve cover’s similarity to Jurojin’s “The Living Measure of Time”. On a white background, a lipsticked statuesque lady in a veil looks heavenward. The mystery that this image suggests is reflected in this album. Like Jurojin, the musical output is varied and progressive but the similarity ends there. Madonagun are from France, and their music starts from a heavier base.
It’s clear to see that diverse influences come into play on “Grovel at Her Feet”. This can work both to the album’s advantage and disadvantage. The second track “Bloodlust” is utterly groove-laden. Heavy and Swedish in its melody, the gruff vocals are strongly reminiscent of Crematory. A feature of this album is the combination of growls and clean harmonies. Unfortunately the harmonies are off key. But it’s power-packed and the keys whistle above the thundery core. More suggestive keys and fast drums signal the start of “Chaos Seeds”. Mr Crematory sounds impressively gruff as the track transforms into a piece of prog jazz. I began to wonder at this point if the clean vocalist is supposed to sound out of tune. This is a strange track. I guess you could call it “experimental”.
As the album progressed, I shifted between appreciation and slight disappointment. “Twilight of the Men” starts as a melodic death metal monolith, developing into a well-controlled, strong and powerful metal extravaganza. Development is what they do. The dodgy, or should it be edgy, chorus is there again. Then comes what for me was the best track on the album: “Scars”. It’s deep, dark and fast with a jolly video-game going on in the background. The keyboards on “Grovel at Her Feet” are impressive, ranging from industrial and progressive to lighter styles. A French-sounding Frenchman adds the words in accompaniment to Mr Crematory (he’s actually called Mattjö, for the record). It slows down and speeds up, taking us with it on an exciting ride. The guitar work is twirling and exotic. This mobile track is excellent. I could play “Scars” over and over again. From this point on I was disappointed.
“.. Or Die Free” threatens energy and power but doesn’t quite get there. Diverse as ever, the vocals are on three levels and it seemed to be heading towards an eastern sound, which frustratingly didn’t seem to be coming but eventually an Arabic rhythm strikes up. There’s a bit of Old Dead Tree about this track. The title track equally has many ingredients and there’s plenty going on. The background is heavy and the guitar solos are good, but there’s something missing and it’s rather drab. Madonagun then commit, in my opinion at least, a tactical error. Two slow tracks bring the work to a desultory end. I guess that “Stairway to Hell” is supposed to have an emotive edge but I just found it uninspiring. Then “Burning Gates” is a quiet acoustic work. It doesn’t work at this stage of the album. It doesn’t tie up with what has gone before and left me feeling flat.
“Grovel at her Feet” is a busy yet mystifying album. I’m not sure that it worked, either in terms of vocals, song structure or set list but at the same time there was plenty of interesting and creative output here.
(6 /10 Andrew Doherty)
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