Artist: Syrach
Title: A Dark Burial
Type: Album
Label: Napalm Records
Norwegian doom metal meisters Syrach make a welcome return with their third album ‘A Dark Burial’. Two years is a much more comfortable wait for a follow up than the decade it took between the first two releases, and with ‘A Dark Burial’, they continue the momentum from 2007’s critically acclaimed ‘Days of Wrath’. For those who like their doom heavy, crushing, and of a tempo that doesn’t leave you twiddling your thumbs between chords, this is a bit of a treat.
Initially being put off by the incredibly cheesy cover art, (all black and white with three hooded and obviously evil monks), my opinion changed drastically within the first couple of minutes of opener ‘Curse the Souls’. Despite a rather clumsy opening few bars, by the time ‘Ripper’ Olsen’s vocals kick in, it is evident that what we have here is stripped down groovy doom with no extra bells and whistles. No evil choirs or elaborate string sections. This is just, slow and moody, with dirty crushing guitars that offer little hope or respite. Ripper’s death metal style vocal is perfectly matched to the raw guitar riffs, and the tempo a notch above your usual funereal pace. ‘The River’s Rage’ picks the pace up further, with a riff that does not so much gallop as canter along in a rather conventional manner before it starts to drag you down, twisting and turning into the maelstrom. ‘A Dark Burial’ starts with the gentle sound of waves lapping against the rocks, (so the river didn’t rage for that long then), and slowly builds up to a gloomy doom metal masterclass, with a sound reminiscent of ‘Gothic’ era Paradise Lost. My one criticism at this point is the fuzziness of the guitar sound. Whilst I can understand the desire for the raw, underproduced sound to emphasise the bleakness, it seems a bit out of place here and could have done with a bit of refining. ‘A Mourners Kiss’ weighs in at an impressive twelve minutes long in the finest doom tradition, but lacks some of the punch of the first three tracks, mostly through lack of invention. Whilst it builds up nicely throughout, it is just a bit predictable, and just doesn’t grab the interest quite as much as a result. ‘In Darkness I Sigh’, (which sounds like a title created by a My Dying Bride random song title generator), is a meandering beast that really drags you in, and by the solo break about three minutes in, I was completely enveloped in the atmosphere it created. A slow burning, but brilliantly effective track and my favourite one from here. Things come to a rather unsatisfactory close with ‘Ouroboros’, a cacophonic instrumental with some unintelligible spoken word over the end. It’s a plodder and a disappointing end to what is otherwise a pretty faultless album.
‘A Dark Burial’ is a very high quality piece of work. The pacing of the tracks is ideal, the creativity high, and musicianship excellent. Thinking back like that, there is almost nothing wrong with it, save for the final track. Despite the heavy, gloomy, almost overbearing nature of the music, there is a lot here to appeal to those who are not generally fans of the genre. This music often requires the listener to have a particular mindset, and a lot of patience. There’s no quick payoff with this style, its reward comes from allowing the music to take you on those long journeys into the depths of despair. Those with a short attention span generally need not apply, but with Syrach, there is an unquantifiable element of accessibility. I’ve been struggling for days to work out what it is, but you’ll just have to take my word for it. Very highly recommended.
http://www.myspace.com/syrach
Lee Kimber
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