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 Repetitive beautiful Folk inspired Doom Metal.- |
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Hailing from the Czech Republic, Silent Stream of Godless Elegy return with their fifth full-length effort, Navaz. This effort is actually the first full-length release from the band in about several years, though the group did issue an EP in 2006 entitled Osamell that seemed to have slipped under the randar in the Metal would. While not a widely acknowledged group in the States, the band's beautiful blend of Folk Music based in Moravian folklore mixed with Doom Metal has earned them plenty of respect in other parts of the world, as well as the "Award of czech music academy" on two occassions since forming back in 1995. For this release, the band find themselves parting from RedBlack, and finding a home on Season of Mist Records, and judging by the material they recorded for this effort, this feels like the perfect home for such an emotional release. Much of the music on here is a more laid back sounding blend of Folk and Doom Metal, keeping far away from being a very depressing and melancholic musical approach that many Doom Metal bands bring with them. The group's main focus is to take the foundation of Doom Metal, and make the songs a little more upbeat and beautiful through Folk musical influences and instruments, all the while focusing on a very suiting female vocalist who just has a natural sound to her voice, being that of being one with nature and not just that it sounds nice on the recording. It's these soothing, sweet vocals, like a mother singing lullabyes softly their newborn baby, that really make the Folk Metal aspects on this stand out, causing the material to take on a beauty that wouldn't exist if the supporting male vocalist, who often joins her for duet moments throughout the album, were to handle all the vocal duties, though his contributions that become a little edgier then clean singing do help add a hit of heaviness to the Doom Metal sections when the song is meant to be a little more foreboding, such as on ""Zlatohlav". The band also retains their regional inspirations by keeping their original language throughout the release, and not putting everything to English. While this may be a slight put off to some who don't understand many other languages, it helps the capture the beauty and impact of the folklore from their region that helps inspire the music. If they hadn't, emotionally moving tracks like "Skryj Hlavu do Diani" simply would not sound right in any means. While the female vocals are often softer, they can sometimes have a little more energy behind them when the music also becomes a little more upbeat then laid back. "Slava" has a far more energetic feel to the music, coming off more as an uplifting song then anything, and finds the vocals being pushed a little harder then before, as well as having a much deeper, often gutteral approach from the male vocalist, all of which works perfectly and shows the talent of the vocalists. There's really nothing bad about this release, other then the fact that it never really builds up to anything. While it's not a bad thing, it often becomes repetitive, though the band manages to keep enough changes in the music, as well as bring in some great talented passages and complete songs to the mix to keep the listener attentive. "Samodiva" closes out the album, and it's just a somewhat slower rendition of "Mokos", which is what started the entire thing off to begin with. "Skryj Hlavu do Diani" does manage to pick up the music and take it into a direction that is more fun simply emotionally driven and laid back like the rest of the material on this album. Aside that, there is also "Dva Stiny Mam" which is a much heavier track and clearly has a stronger focus on the band's Doom Metal side, but the female vocal performance between the gutteral male vocals and heavier passages sounds like something Lacuna Coil would do. Though the song feels a little more unoriginal, it definitely makes for a nice change of pace while still maintaning a good amount of the band's Folk inspirations to just give the listener a break from the emotional songs that come off more as the type of music one may hear by the fire in a gypsy caravan, but one would assume that even they would offer more then songs that have the same atmosphere, emotional feeling, and even structuring at times. When you break down Navaz by Silent Stream of Godless Elegy, it truly is a beautiful and fantastic album that shows a lighter side of Doom Metal that many bands don't normally tread. The only thing really holding it back is the number of songs that sound similar to one another on many levels, though never direct copies. The music is emotionally driven, and vocals work well, but eventually start to feel over used without any real range being included to them, all of which causes this recording to feel more like a niche album for people in specific moods, such as a laid back or explorative mood. it's far from bad, and definitely not forgettable, but chances are it'll pick up enough dust between the random impulse moments to throw this one back in your media player. |
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Digital review copy of this release provided by: Season of Mist Records.
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