|
Solid and atmospheric, but hollow and held back at some points.-
|
| In Solitude: The World. The Flesh. The Devil. |
Heavy Metal
Metal Blade Records
May 24th, 2011
- The World. The Flesh. The Devil - 5:05
- We Were Never Here - 6:09
- Serpents Are Rising - 4:57
- Poisoned, Blessed, and Burned - 6:56
- Demons - 6:44
- To Her Darkness - 6:11
- Dance of the Adversary - 7:56
- On Burning Paths - 13:44
|
| Links |
| Review Information |
Release length: 57:42
Review posted on May 23rd, 2011
- |
|
| | Overall Score: 8/10 |
 |
|
|
| Discography |
Discography covers all information available up to day of review and is updated if future albums are reviewed. |
| Full-Length(s): |
In Solitude (2008) • The World. The Flesh. The Devil (2011)
|
| Single(s): |
Hidden Dangers (2008)
|
| Demo(s): |
In Solitude (2005) • Hidden Dangers (2006)
|
|
| - |
| Review |
In Solitude is an old-school Heavy Metal act from Sweden that formed back in 2002. In 2008 the group issued their debut full-length, which led to the group signing to Metal Blade Records for their follow-up release, The World. The Flesh. The Devil. With much praise coming in for the group around the net, it's obvious the group is causing a large buzz on the net and has plenty of potential to back it up, but does this follow-up release deliver on the positive remarks bestowed upon them at this point?
It's pretty clear where some of the major influences of In Solitude come from in the group's music. Right off the bat of The World. The Flesh. The Devil listeners can easily pick up on ques from King Diamond, but without the high falsettos, and more of a restrained Horror Punk style similar to that of The Misfits, who also seem to be a contributing band at times on the album with the music and atmosphere. This all becomes obvious on the slower track "The World, The Flesh, The Devil", which isn't that bad a track, but the music just sounds rather open, having a compositional vibe of King Diamond-like material that would sound great had the drumming felt a little more rich compared to the guitars, though both bass and electric are a little lacking on this track as well due to the slower nature. The vocals also feel restrained and come off very monotone without any real energy behind them. All of this leads to a pretty disapointing starting track to the album, though it sets the general concept of the material nicely as far as the inspirations and atmosphere go. Luckily, this track feels more like a fluke as "We Were Never Here" picks things up, has a richer sound to it, and has a stronger vocal performance that shows a little extra range, but still leaves the listener waiting for the higher falsettos that never come.
While the vocal performance is a little saddening, the album itself isn't that bad. Some of the material presented on this release isn't the strongest, like the aforementioned title track, and "Poisoned, Blessed, and Burned" is a catchy lighter song, but musically doesn't feel that rich, and again the lack of falsettos or anything really dynamic vocally in any sense outside the nasal restrained clean singing holds the track back. This could also be blamed on the overall quality of the recording. The album really captures that vintage sound to it in the production quality, feeling a little muffled and analog, though in no way raw and coming off a professional recording, but more like a professional recording from the eighties. It works with the general dark and creepy occult-like atmosphere of the album, which suits the often occult or demonic lyrical content of the release, but given some of the restraints posed by the band in the vocals and music that isn't too impressive due to it coming off a little more hollow then it should be, it comes to be more of a burden then anything else. Due to all of this, the music ends up losing some of it's bite, and where the music itself isn't rich, it tends to become boring rather then inspiring as an homage to the vintage days of Heavy Metal.
But, there's still a good amount of good tracks on here worth checking out despite all of that. "We Were Never Here" is a far richer track that shows off the abilities of the band well without any real restraints. "Demons" also has that richness that feels a little more energetic, though not as energy filled as "We Were Never Here", but also has a much heavier atmosphere due to the harmonized background vocals of the chorus. "To Her Darkness" is another track that stands out, and it seems to try to play off the more mid-tempo or slower paces of "Poisoned, Blessed, and Burned", but takes the music up to a more traditional epic scale, leaving the music to feel more like a stronger anthemic Doom Metal meets Heavy Metal song with a rich atmosphere and one of the strongest performances on the release that, all together, just makes it sound larger then life, and it works well for the track and corrects the elements of "Poisoned, Blessed, and Burned" that the band seemed to have handled incorrectly on that track.
Of course, the one song that seems to trump all of these happens to be the closing track, "On Burning Paths", which shows the most energy, though not in any manner epic, which is something one would hope for when it's an old-school Heavy Metal act performing a song that is just shy of fourteen minutes in length. The track offers solid, rich music that goes at a faster tempo and has a truly genuine old-school sound to it that reminds the listener exactly why that style will always be smiled upon by fans, and how it never gets old, as the song is catchy, has a good heaviness to the darker atmosphere of the song, and the music is simple enough that it still challenges the listener with fluid music that goes between being catchy and melodic in a traditional Heavy Metal fashion and chugging in a way that feels like the music is just hammering away at you. Add into the equation that the music on the album brings the bass levels higher up for the final mix and how it works well with the regular guitars to creating a strong backing through the album and take over when necessary, such as guitar solos, all to make the song feel dynamic as a more restrained Iron Maiden performance, and you have a song that easily captivates the listener for the entire time, and makes for the perfect closing track to this release.
In Solitude show that they have a true understanding of the glory days of Heavy Metal, and really put the knowledge to use on this release. The World. The Flesh. The Devil is a solid effort from the group, though only tracks are simply boring due to a lack of rich music and restrained vocals, there's a decent number of great, engaging songs on here mixed with some that are just solid, but don't necessarily leave a big impression on the listener other then being properly executed homages to a vintage sound. The band does deliver, though not to the scale fans and new comers would hope given the hype in the underground about this group, but there's promise on these tracks, and while the band seemed to be more focused on creating an authentic sound that is a throwback to the classic days of Heavy Metal, and that's going to be one of the main draws to the group moreso then the quality of the songs themselves. Despite the reasons for your curiosity towards In Solitude, the album The World. The Flesh. The Devil isn't necessarily anything too new, but it's refreshing and for the most part is a well done album.
|
| - |
|
|
Digital review copy of this release provided by:
Metal Blade Records.
| Submit to Social Networks |
|
|
|
