Style: progressive metal, psychedelic death metal (harsh vocals)
Review by: Sam
Recommended for fans of: Opeth, Agalloch, Blood Incantation
Country: Sweven Sweden
Release date: 20 March, 2020
[EDITOR’S NOTE: This review was originally published in the March 2020 Part 2 issue of The Progressive Subway.]
One thing I always look for but almost always fail to satisfy is my itch for Opeth-type music. Bands that can weave extreme metal with melodic passages and do so well are extremely rare. And so, this is the zillionth installment of that search. Long term readers can probably remember my frustrations at bands like Piah Mater or Stormhaven who only copied the Swedes.
Comparing this to Opeth is unfair though. This band is the continuation of the once successful Morbus Chron, named after their last album Sweven, and surprising exactly no one, sounds like them. This album is an atmospheric adventure. It’s a highly melodic and soothing piece of death metal, as contradictory as that sounds. I imagine this is the kind of album you put on during a trip (not that I do drugs myself though). It’s easy to just close yourself and lose yourself in the hypnotic chords and spaced-out songwriting. Even as the tortured screams enter the fray it doesn’t distract at all from the relaxed atmosphere. It’s weird. And as proggy and chopped up as the rhythms are and as many changeups as the songs go through, not once does any of it take me out of the state of complete immersion that this record sucks me into. It all sounds incredibly warm. From the guitar tones to the full sounds of the toms to the trippy bass playing, the production feels like a warm blanket enveloping you in the cosiest way possible.
I have to give huge credit for the instrumental performance on this album. For instance, for an atmospheric album the drumming is surprisingly intricate, going through many different rhythms per song and making very frequent use of fills. None of it feels like showing off though. Every note he hits beats you further into a trance. He often makes the guitar playing more impactful than it already is with his playing. Speaking of which, I’m in love. The harmonies are just incredible, ranging from acoustic chords to tremolo strumming to classic heavy metal ones, and everything in between, all while maintaining the hypnotic feeling. They also frequently combine with piano to hammer in the psychedelics even further.
As good as this album is though, it’s not without its flaws. Circling back to the Opeth comparisons, much like with Morbus Chron, what I’m missing in this is a sense of peaking. The album feels much like reading a long paragraph with lots of great arguments but little to no interpunction. It’s a gigantic stream of consciousness that begins and then just… ends after a while. There’s no sense of conflict being resolved like in a story with ups and downs (like Opeth does so well). It’s rather a long dream of vivid imagery flowing into each other. In that sense it’s an amazing achievement of course, transporting you to a different plane like that, but I can’t help but find myself longing for some clear moments of emotional peaking and general structure. Some ideas just don’t get resolved enough or float in the ether too much. I can’t quite put my finger on it.
That said though, this is still a magnificent album, and certainly one of the most original things I’ve heard in a while for this blog. It hit me in a completely different way than most prog metal in this vein does. While listening I kept wondering about where the climax was, but then at the end they finish the album with some lovely ritualistic chanting, I feel weirdly fulfilled and wonder what the fuck just happened.
Recommended tracks: By Virtue of a Promise, Mycelia, Sanctum Sanctorum
You may also like: Morbus Chron, The Chasm
Final verdict: 8/10
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Metal-Archives page
Label: Ván Records – Bandcamp | YouTube | Facebook
Sweven is:
– Robert Andersson (vocals, guitar)
– Isak Koskinen Rosemarin (lead guitar)
– Jesper Nyrelius (drums)
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