Tad Morose weren’t in any rush to do a new album, they have their own recording studio (well, the singer does), they love playing live and can record when the mood takes – not a bad way to be! They can hone their ideas, tweak the songs, build the arrangements and only release product when absolutely ready. Knowing this makes me think that this is the best way forward for the band at this point in time – and therefor that this is the five members of Tad Morose’s ideal vision for the band.
As fans will know, Tad Morose started out as doom-tinged metal as their name suggested, grew into epic dark power metal and now kind of inhabit all their previous styles at the same time. This is a continuation of the style crafted on 2014’s “St. Demonius” – another solid chunk of riff-driven, epic dark powerful metal with theatrical, dynamic vocals. The vocals are even more dramatic and diverse this time around, as if Ronny Hemlin having established himself in the band on the previous release, has taken the opportunity to really spread his wings and go for it.
As I mentioned earlier, Tad Morose with Hemlin on vocals seem to be able to blend both their Swedish Doom Metal early days with that Dark Power Metal sound they had after the Millennium. There’s all sorts in the bands musical armoury, and with Hemlin further ramping up the theatrical side to his Metal delivery, there seems to be even more going on. Audibly they are very much themselves (as their career spans over 25 years!), but alongside this, there are hints of Solitude Aeturnus, Memento Mori, Solstice and Argus in their slower moments through to Deadly Blessing, Crimson Glory or Helstar when things pick up a bit. Varied stuff indeed!
There’s not usually anything particularly immediate about Tad Morose, their songs have always been growers and they are never ones to throw in a catchy chorus for the sake of it. It’s much more their style to pummel the listener with heavy guitar, powerful rhythms and then build on it with dynamic varied vocals – low, mid and high range, delivered with apparent ease. Fans of the band will have their favourite side to the band and it’s safe to say that once again all should be more than satisfied. This album is a continuation of their sound, but also an expansion, another step forward and onwards for this long-lived and highly respected Swedish Metal band.
(7/10 Andy Barker)
Leave a Reply