It is said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery; having repeatedly listened to the début album from Metal Blade’s latest Swedish doom signing Below, Candlemass must be flattered to the highest of heights! If you’re not put off by that potentially flippant remark, please read on. Sometimes I get sent review downloads that stir me to mosh with glee or grimace in pain and slog out the work, but with this first full length release from Below, ‘Across the Dark River’, I reckon fellow commuters on my London Underground slog to work must have looked at my face and said, “is he confused, or just trying to control his guts until the next station?” Trust me one and all, my digestive functions were fine, I was just wondering why I was sent an old Candlemass album to review.
The first paragraph of this review is probably a little unfair, as whilst it is undoubtedly accurate to compare the band to their aforementioned influence, it potentially does unnecessarily belittle their playing skills, as to reproduce that sound needs a combination of skilful musicians and an epic vocalist, something this band clearly has by the spadeful. It would be impossible to sound this accomplished without ability, but my problem is that every track makes me think, “that sounds just like Candlemass circa (insert relevant album/year here)….!”
‘Trapped Under Ground’ opens the album with graveyard sound effects that resonate as if they were sampled from a seventies Hammer Horror movie, Captain Kronos comes to mind, and are quickly subsumed by slow heavy guitars and dragged out bass and drums, all accompanied by epic, clean vocals; pretty much pure by the numbers Candlemass. By the time track four, ‘Portal’ came around, I could practically sing “Please let me die in solitude” along to the riff. ‘Mare of the Night’ has the same epic feel, and the identical extended riffing and doom exploration permeates the last two tracks, the penultimate number ‘The Whitechapel Murderer’ slowly mining the rich seams of metal that are available to any Jack the Ripper researcher.
The band openly admits on their blurb having Black Sabbath and Candlemass as influences, so their honesty is to be admired as much as their musicianship. What I await is a new spark of identity to prevent Below becoming anything but a tribute act.
(6.5/10 Spenny)
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