Golgotha - Erasing the Past

The Fart Collector

Back in February, I reviewed the terrible debut album from Dying Embers, and the main takeaway from that, to me at least, was that I thought I was super clever coining "mellowdeath" as more of a codified genre than a snide pejorative, describing their brand of synth-smothering quasi-doomy mid paced melodeath with shitty clean vocals.  The thing is, since I published that, it's actually been brought to my attention that really all I did was accidentally describe Sentenced.  After a quick skim of a handful of songs, I'll concede that yeah, Dying Embers had way more in common with Sentenced than In Flames.  My bad y'all.

Anyway here's the exact same style of album that I hated last time.  Spoiler alert: I still don't like it.

Admittedly that's kind of unfair, because Golgotha's fourth album (and first after a 14 year silence), Erasing the Past, isn't terrible, but it certainly suffers from a few gigantic flaws.  Musically, if we're going to put this up against Dying Embers (since they're fresh on my mind and I know their one album a hell of a lot better than the few Sentenced tracks I checked out in passing), it's significantly better.  The songs have a real sense of direction here, weaving stories of anguish that at the very least seem to have a destination in mind instead of aimlessly faffing about with a few ideas before moving on. The riffs themselves don't tend to be all that engaging but there are a few nice moments of pounding heaviness that rear their heads occasionally (namely on "Burning the Disease" and "Rewrite Your Destiny") and the drumming is particularly heavy on the toms, which keeps things appropriately pounding when they go for it.

The issue is that everything else is just... boring.  I said the riffs aren't all that engaging but that's honestly kind of overselling them.  They're mainly just slow chugs that sometimes pick up to a glib trot and that's about the extent of their creativity.  They don't weave evocative textures of any sort, though I feel like that was the intent.  The title track sounds like a slow version of Nevermore's "The Heart Collector".  I think that's a great song, but here it seems that slowing it down and stretching it to over eight minutes just makes it overwrought and tedious.  And man, the vocals are bad on that one.  They're never great, but they're serviceable throughout most of the album, with competent deep growls and deep baritone cleans (which frankly kinda sound hokey when they're not layered with anything else), but on the title track for whatever reason it sounds like the dude is trying to be some epic narrator and it winds up sounding so hilariously overblown.  That "I FEEEEL! YWOR HOOOORT!" literally sounds like That 1 Guy, it's hysterical.  The growls are usually fine too but for whatever reason, on "Enveloped in Fog" and only "Enveloped in Fog", they sound super strained and terrible.  I don't know what it is, but this album just has random tracks where the vocalist suddenly just completely sucks at what he's otherwise fine at, it's baffling.

Overall this is just boring, and I'm bored of it.  It's decently okay doom flavored gothic metal but it's neither entertaining nor evocative.  It's not even interesting.  It's just pure background music and I'm done talking about it.


RATING: 41%

Marianas Rest - Ruins

I JUST realized the band name means "deep sleep"

If anybody has been following me for the 11+ years I've been reviewing metal, y'all have probably noticed I almost never touch on death/doom in any real capacity.  It's not because I hate the style, there's nothing inherently wrong with it really, it's just not my usual wheelhouse since I generally favor the angry over the weepy, and what is death/doom if not weepy?  Marianas Rest here knows how to weep the weepy weep way, but really they stand out a bit for carrying their moodiness in a way that tends to be overwhelming, feeling like you're drowning more than you're sitting in your room moping, and for that they definitely stand above the pack a bit.

I'm being facetious here, because despite the "melodic death/doom" tag they seem to carry with them, Ruins has way more in common with the style of melodeath that Insomnium got famous for pioneering.  This keeps the downtrodden gloominess of Swallow the Sun and My Dying Bride at the forefront, no doubt, but it shares equal real estate with the cavernous double bass and deep growls that Finns seem to be so good championing.  That also isn't really my preferred style but I can at least jam something like Stone's Reach or Above the Weeping World (hey there's that word again) an any given day instead of necessarily needing to be in an existential pit of despair for them to connect.  Marianas Rest is similar in that regard, because while being in the right depressive mood can certainly enhance the experience, it isn't a necessity.

It's unsurprising that I find the more kinetic tracks like "Unsinkable" to be more listenable on the whole, since that one most exemplifies that rolling double bass and oceanic riffwork beneath submerged melodies that I enjoy so much, but these guys do switch it up on occasion with more overtly slow and gloomy tracks like "The Defiant".  The vocals tend to stay in that deep Niilo Sevanen-esque roar that further adds to the doomy inundation of swelling melodies, but they also swap between a higher rasp akin to a Harakiri for the Sky-ish shout.  They're quite standard for the style, but it works to tie the whole package together, which is really all I can ask of them. 

The album's biggest asset is also it's biggest downfall, being that it's super consistent in its mood and delivery, despite the occasional tempo shifts, but while that creates a cohesive experience, it leaves little room for actual standouts.  Ruins sits at a plateau for its entire runtime and never really gets better or worse than the opening minutes of "Kairos".  I'm starting to run out of nautical adjectives, but invoking the deepest point of the earth known to man in their name is quite appropriate, because this is deep, heavy, and suffocating.  It'd be nice if there was some more overt creativity involved, because as of right now Marianas Rest doesn't do a whole lot to distinguish themselves from their influences, but they're good at what they do.  Ruins is definitely a worthwhile experience, but I won't begrudge you for getting halfway through and just switching to The Morning Never Came or Winter's Gate instead.  Because that's exactly what I did.


RATING: 75%

Vielikan - Emotional Void

Better than the bands they remind me of

Northern Africa isn't necessarily known for crushing Metal, but Vielikan certainly prove that such a thing exists. Hailing from Tunisia, Emotional Void is a decent 25 minute journey through darkness that's interesting while it lasts, but won't stick in your mind for months after the experience. While yes, the tag of "Progressive Death Metal" will invariably draw comparisons to the bewilderingly beloved Opeth, the influence keeps itself restrained enough to remain pure influence as opposed to straight up worship, which is definitely a good thing. The percussion generally keeps a very slow pace, and while double bass may kick up occasionally, Tarak Ghemguy's upper half keeps the flow at a snail's pace for most of the duration. The main issue with Emotional Void is that it just kind of… I don't know, just happens.

No segments grab you by the balls and command your attention, there is no real sense of overwhelming atmosphere, and nothing is really retainable. The riffs are reminiscent of Gojira in the sense that they just kind of grind and chug along like an old fashioned locomotive on an endlessly looping track. The train chugs and chugs along, polluting the air and going nowhere, and most of the riffs are no different. Again, this isn't necessarily a riff based style they're going for, but the lack of any overpowering atmosphere leaves me nothing to think about except the guitar work. Thankfully, the overall feeling from track to track changes enough to keep them distinguishable. "Zero Affection" takes a Doom/Death style route in the vein of Evoken somewhat, "Black Marsh" has a couple clean breaks that warrant the dreaded Opeth comparison, and "A Vertiginous Fall" sounds straight off of From Mars to Sirius, further hammering home the unfortunate Gojira similarity.

You could do a whole hell of a lot worse than Vielikan (I guess you could be listening to Gojira, so this is a better choice by virtue of the fact that it isn't them), but there are much better ways to spend your time. Fans of the bands I've mentioned throughout the review should check this out, but if you never really liked any of them, nothing here will change your mind or enlighten you to the style.

RATING - 60%


Originally written for www.metalcrypt.com