If there’s one thing us Brits excel at, it’s being miserable. It makes perfect sense when you think of all the dreary weather and the nitwits in power sticking two fingers up from their side of the moat. Hell, even when we are able to bask in glorious sunshine we complain! Little wonder we have spawned some of the worlds most lugubrious acts; My Dying Bride, Esoteric, Anathema…I could go on, but it almost makes me proud to be British! Recorded at Priory Studios with Esoteric main man and producer extraordinaire Greg Chandler, Seventh Angel are the latest to join the ranks of doom and gloom, though these are no n00bs. A journey to their MySpace page informs me this band were knocking about in the early 90’s and were even hailed in the Daily Telegraph as Britain’s best Christian thrash band (what is it with Christian metal at the moment? It’s everywhere!)
Not being familiar with their back catalogue I must say that labelling these a thrash band is massively deceptive. Despite the artwork and album title hardly seeming typically thrashy I whacked this on the stereo expecting one thing and got something vastly different. Alright, there are a few thrash elements scattered about here such as the furious drumming on ‘Chaos Of Dreams’ but overall this seems to have more of a death-doom sound. ‘The Turning Tide’ for example is laden with such an oppressive guitar sound; gravid riffs contrasted with high pitched melodies that sounds very Paradise Lost circa Gothic. There’s certainly something very haunting about this number. ‘Weep Not For Us’ is typically My Dying Bride in name, though by no means in sound as it has a far more primitive death metal approach albeit with some lovely Eastern licks. Far more MDBian is its predecessor ‘Exordium’ which has a real air of hopelessness about it. The sluggish riffs drag along providing the heaviness for which to build upon with somnolent melodies that really hypnotise the listener.
It does take a couple of listens to really get anything out of this listening experience, though it’s certainly worth the wait. There’s something rather warm and embracing about the album that so makes me want to fall in love with it, but unfortunately there is something lacking. Most of the songs follow a similar pattern of having a truly excellent chorus; clean vocal lines tinged with melancholic beauty and a grandiloquent sound, though often the rest of the song doesn’t match up. ‘Lamentations’ is one that really suffers in this respect as the chorus leaps out at you from an otherwise lacklustre number. ‘Abelard and Heloise’ is a really haunting tune with its beguiling flute melody and creepy vocal lines; I love the poetic flow of this with the spoken words and Gregorian intro. The album ends on an equally poetic note with ‘Oswiecim’ which is incredibly mournful, the guitars weeping like a widow at her husbands funeral.
This is far from a bad album – in places this is excellent, although as a whole it is let down by some weak and uninteresting verses. The thrashy parts, for example, on ‘Weep Not For Us’ just don’t manage to inflict the damage I’d hope for and am ultimately left somewhat unfulfilled. It’s a real shame as there’s so much potential for this to be a great album.
http://www.myspace.com/seventhangelofficial
