No, it’s not the latest sleep medication from Pfizer Co. It’s some mostly solid, melancholly laden, melodic & modern metal from Finland. This band does have a strong Katatonia influence & bits of mid-period Amorphis and slice or two of Opeth & November’s Doom.
Overall, this is better than a lot of other current bands that attempt this style (and often fail). I could do without some of the quasi-Gothenborg parts (which thankfully aren’t in every song) but the spoken verses are a nice touch and the untypical artwork is also good to see.
(((1))) Slow sombre piano & synths. It’s just an short intro but I like it.
((2)) Lots of “Iron Maiden via Gothenborg” but mostly Gothenborg styled melodic death metal. The vocals are a lot deeper than most bands doing this style nowadays. Catchy but not all that great.
((((3)))) Acoustic intro then trad. metal flavor (think Maiden/Helloween) then a nice mix of old Katatonia & Amorphis.
(((4))) More traditional metal riffing sounding a bit like Queensryche crossed with Opeth in the first few seconds. Eventually more a nice melachollic mid-tempo metal akin to November’s Doom. Personal lyrics with whispered & spoken breakdowns instead of emoboy whining.
(((5))) Fast piano intro then more sombre melodic & saddened death-ish metal. Sounds pretty close to old Amorphis with a bit of a old In Flames.
((((6)))) Total Opeth worship except with spoken verses here & there (so probably a nod to November’s Doom). Mid-tempo, atmospheric, melodic & bleak.
(((7))) Mellow acoustic guitars that sound similar to Opeth’s “Face of Melinda”. Just an instrumental/interlude thing but very nice.
((8))) Typical Gothenborg guitar parts but fairly deep vocals. Catchy but like track #2 just kind of “there”.
((((9)))) Acoustic strumming and then after a minute it bursts into some doomy to mid-tempo bleakness. Kind of epic at 8+ minutes. Overall, it’s well done.
((10)) Catchy Gothenborg style with super melodic guitars. Not awful but it sounds like their trying to write “radio friendly extreme metal” whatever that means.
(((((11))))) They saved the best for last. Awesome death doom! I wish the whole album was like this!