Having recently published a review of an album themed around a battle on British soil between Celts and invading Saxons (Sergeant Thunderhoof's "The Ghost of Badon Hill"), it seems quite fitting to now review an album by a group of Danes, a people who also made their mark on Britain's shores. The band in question is Alkymist, a progressive doom outfit from Copenhagen, featuring Peter Bjørneg on vocals, Stefan Krey on guitars, Kaspar Luke on bass, and Per Silkjær on drums. The band have just released their third album "UnnDerr", a robust blend of gnarled prog-metal, doom, and sludge fronted by a mix of harsh, guttural and sinister vocals that pack a surprising level of both power and clarity.
"The Scent" kicks things in to motion, it is a song that begins just how you would want music of this genre to begin , thrumming, heavy and loud, albeit with just the merest hint of slurred grunginess in Krey's guitar tones, but then things settle down and the band slide into a sinister doomic groove over which Bjørneg informs us in equally sinister tones that "The scent of beauty becomes venom when it’s inside your dreams and wakes your demon", the vocalist reverting to a more gritty bear like roar in the songs recurring heavier sections, Luke and Silkjær ably supporting both vocalist and guitarist with some seriously impressive drum and bass work. "Digging A Grave" follows and as its less than cheery title suggests this is not a song to lift your spirits and give you a good feeling about your day, no this is a dark dank heavy ode to despondency and despair set to a backdrop of chugging saw toothed riffage and thunderous percussion, your darkest thoughts given a lyrical and musical platform. Up next is title track "UnnDerr" its sinister opening guitar motif, backed by swooning synth-like effects, initially this song has the feel of something The Cure might have toyed with in their Seventeen Seconds/Faith/Pornography period but those similarities are soon forgotten when the hammer goes down and the band launch into a sludgy doomic groove over which the vocals alternate between low throaty rancour and coffin creaky malevolence. "Light OF A Lost Star" might sound like it has some sci-fi connotations but lyrically it seems to be more about hope and the human condition than it does spaceships and planets, and this is backed up by the music which is just a little less dank and suffocating than that which has gone before, we must emphasis the word "little" here though. following song "My Sick Part" is a short sharp doomic romp with guitar parts that are a touch more strident and crunchy with rhythms a little more furious and fast paced while its follow up "Fire In My Eyes" is a sludgy doomic mid tempo behemoth fleshed out with prog-like guitar texturing and swirling psychedelic solos and featuring a really intense and powerful vocal performance from Bjørneg. Final number "Masters OF Disguise" uses quiet/loud/quiet dynamics to ramp up its impact and add atmosphere, its an old trick but one that works perfectly here especially when twinned with vocals that share a similar dynamic, the real clincher though is the husky semi-whispered vocal, sung over a backdrop of gently picked acoustic guitars, that takes the song to its conclusion, its just sublime.
Absolutely on the nail review!
ReplyDeleteThanks dude
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