Artist: The 11th Hour
Title: Burden Of Grief
Type: Album
Label: Napalm Records

The ultimate concept album for doom-heads, Burden of Grief follows the final few days of a dying man. Do not, therefore, expect this to be an opus of laughter, hijinks or other guffaw-unleashing japery. Burden of Grief is all about the melancholy, baby. Pure dread, terror and a miserable attitude are the fuels that propel the good ship 11th Hour on their voyage through despair. It’s also a rather stunning, extremely engaging metal doom album.

Ed Wardby is known for his death metal exploits, principally, through bands like Gorefest, Hail of Bullets and Demiurg. The 11th Hour is his baby, a band formed with the intention of satisfying other shades in his metal palette. Helping him out on this album is the curiously near ubiquitous Rogga Johansson, providing his hateful death growl. This is, for the most part, unrelentingly depressing, downbeat death/doom. This, it has to be said, has very little to do with the usual weeping-into-a-lace-handkerchief cloying nonsense that can clog the genre. This is much more a tale regarding the frustration and anger of grief than the self-pity and drama waxed upon by their peers. The vocals alternate between a clean vocal style in the vein of Mats Leven (Candlemass), and the raw, rage filled hoarse roar of Johansson. The tempo never dares to venture above the setting of “morose” on the speedometer, while the thick, almost impenetrable wall of guitar riffery speaks to the ear of the oppression of grief. Ever wanted to know the mental processes of feeling helpless under the onslaught of inescapable death sounds like? Now you know.

Sparse arrangements of piano and clean, tolling drums lend further atmosphere to the album in between the fury and frustration of the more aggressive sections. It’s not a bundle of laughs, but this is a thought provoking, cathartic listen with a heavy, organic atmosphere. The subtle synthesiser and other non-traditional metal instrumentation add further subtle shades of grey to the bleak darkness. Production wise, this is about as perfect a studio job as you could wish for in a doom/death album. So sure, the clean vocals take a bit of getting used to in the context of such a massively heavy album, but this is the purest, clearest declaration of utter misery I have heard this year. What’s next for Johannson and Wardby? Having mastered death metal and doom/death between them, where next to conquer? Fucking rap metal?

http://www.myspace.com/11thhourdoom

Chris Davison

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