One of the styles I never thought would ever see the word "Melodic" in front of it managed to find it's way into my inbox recently, courtesy Season of Mist Records. Mar de Grises is a Melodic Doom Metal band that also brings in a strong Death Metal sound. Now, while it may sound a little out of place having melody in your Doom Metal, their third release, Streams Inwards, is actually a rather invigorating release that sounds fantastic for the styles the band plays, and is actually a rather invigorating release. There's no denying that the atmosphere to many of the songs on this release almost flawlessly match the lyrical content of the band, being that of topics dealing generally with depressing subjects and overall sadness, as well as a slightly scientific vibe. But, all of this does have it's price with this album as a whole.
When you first hit play on Streams Inwards, it may take you some time if you too cannot process the thought of Melodic Doom Metal, especially since the starting song "Starmaker" kicks things off a bit rough. This track tries to be a less Melodic track and more aimed at a blend between traditional Doom and Death, but in the end, which causes it to also lose some of the atmosphere that makes the latter songs on this release so fantastic. While it's a good track, it's the following song, "Shining Human Skin", that really drives the band's music home for the listener. The music here has such a fantastic ambience that it can take the listener away with it's depressing overtones, matching guitars and stand out chords during the chorus, amazing bridge about two thirds of the way through, energetic vocal performance, all of which works together to just create just one hell of an astouding song that can leave the listener breathless in the end. This track winds up bleeding into "The Bell and the Solar Gust", which is another phenomenal track that really works the ambience aspect of the music nicely, but just doesn't quite have the same power behind it that "Shining Human Skin" has, which is followed up by the depressing instrumental "Spectral Ocean", which features plenty of electronic-related effects to create a very depressing environment with EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomenon) sound effectsw in the background that, honestly, just sound like heavily distorted space ship explosions from an old Nintendo Entertainment System video game.
The other half of Streams Inwards is dramatically different from the first. With exception to "Sensing the New Orbit", the rest of the album really slows down and seems to be focused on creating a specific atmosphere to the album, and often lacks any of the power that "Shining Human Skin" or "The Bell and the Solar Gust" had spoil the listener earlier on with. "Catatonic North" is the only track that manages to come close to either of those tracks power. The song manages to create a very dismall sound through it's heavily Doom Metal feel. The track starts off at an incredibly slow pace with clean singing that would make you imagine the band sitting around the studio with candles going against darkness, until the Death Metal chorus kicks in out of nowhere. Unfortunately, for as moving as the depressive parts are, the powerful gutteral performances that kick in are just so abrupt that, while they work for the song with the way the music builds up to support them, it seriously just takes the listener off guard. Sadly, the closing to the song is a little irritating, incorporating technical sound effects, as if through a radio, to fade the song out, but it seems to go on just a bit too long, which winds up killing the buzz of the song slightly. Everything seems to continue along this path, even to the closing song "A Sea of Dead Comets", which features the most space-like atmosphere on the entire album, closing out on practically a whole other spectrum then it started out with. The dramatic change happens so suddenly too that it's hard to actually sit through the last three songs without wanting to just return to "Shining Human Skin" and "The Bell and the Solar Gust" in between each song. Had there been a nice transition between the two, especially as far as the varying atmospheres from start to finish, it honestly wouldn't be a problem, but that sadly is not the case here, and it's perhaps the only let down of the entire album.
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The limited edition Digipack version of this album, outside of the packaging itself, features the bonus track "Aphelion Aura", as well as the lyrics to the song. Outside of obvious collectable reasons, this edition really isn't worth picking up for that one song, as it's actually horrible. The song is composed of atmospheric electronic noises and synths to try to create a space-like atmosphere to the song, much like that of "Spectral Ocean", but as if it's trying to be fancier and more haunting, as well as contains some pianos that chime in about half way through, and guitars shortly after that. Against it, a woman winds up singing against it in a somewhat low, seductive tone one would expect from an old spy film, where the girl in the club is dancing and trying to arouse the audience for a better reaction. This would be fantastic if it worked, but, there are plenty of times where the singing sounds horribly off key and amateurish, and winds up just being dull after the first two minutes. The sad thing here is that this song, as a whole, goes on for over nine minutes, leaving this edition high and dry.
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Streams Inwards is an impressive album that often leaves the listener speachless, in both good and bad ways. Outside of the dramatic shift in the band's musical direction on the album, the album is flawless, and features what could be considered one of the most memorable Doom Metal songs, regardless of the addition of Death Metal and melody. There's no reason to pass up on Streams Inwards, but just be prepared for the odd approach that Mar de Grises took when conveying, as well as composing, this opus.
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