This is the third album by this Majorcan sextet from Palma. Formed in the last century, they are producing some wonderfully heavy albeit melancholic music with beautiful clean vocals and powerful death growls.
The album commences with some seriously chunky guitar riffs on “The Inner Crumble” along with Josep Brunet’s deep roar, which is quickly replaced by his melodic clean vocals and Enrique Sierra’s sweeping keyboards with the song swinging between the two for the rest of its meandering journey.
“Burden Me” is a far more upbeat number with a happier sounding piano under Samuel Morales and Sandro Vizcaino’s guitars as they drive the vocals from clean to lengthy growls. They have a video for the track on their site which makes for interesting viewing.
The sustained guitar works really well with the clean vocals on “Looters”, as do the tinkering piano notes before they fade to allow the whispered vocals to be audible, but it’s the way the growls appear even heavier as a result of these quiet pieces that allow them to pack so much more punch.
Keeping things slow but upping the intensity is “Unified” as the guitars have a much more pronounced riffing sequence and the growls feel angrier somehow.
I love the rumble of Guillem Morey’s bass on “Delusive Eyes” as it precedes Xavi Gil’s steady double kicks and Josep’s tranquilly harmonious vocals over slow and heavy guitars.
The slow drawn out growls on “I Am to Blame” match the guitars as they go from faster chunkier riffs to longer more sustained ones, but it’s the choral vocals that have an impressive Gregorian chant feel to them.
“Reason Dies Last” has a spoken verse by album co-lyricist Grant Anderson during an extremely mellow bridge on an already slow song.
The hauntingly slow “Els Dies Tranquils” has a simple drum tapping that the guitars strum over while Josep quietly recites the Spanish poetry before Lisa Cuthbert’s exquisite voice makes it even more haunting.
I thoroughly enjoyed this album, as while it may be doomy in its entirety it still has plenty of uplifting and up-tempo tracks that make for interesting changes of pace.
(7/10 Marco Gaminara)
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