Griftegård – Solemn.Sacred.Severe
Genre: Doom
Label: Ván Records
Crushingly heavy, eardrum destroying DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM! I want to gush like an obsessed fangirl, and the first song isn’t even finished killing my ears. “Charles Taze Russell” is it’s title, and it’s a first rate masterpiece of doom metal. It’s brutal in how heavy it is. Not hard like death metal, but heavy. Slow moving, but inexorable in it’s destructive path. It also seems to be fairly antichristian and antihuman, which aren’t that altogether unheard of in doom.
The crushing continues, ripping my soul to shreds as I listen to this album. It’s just so fucking amazing, full of fairly long songs (“Punishment & Ordeal” is almost 12 minutes long), and each song is full of deep lyrics that really make you think. Actually using the gray matter.
Vocally, Thomas Erikson is a god. His voice soars, deep as the ocean and as strong as a hurricane, but in songs like “Drunk With Wormwood” he brings it to such a vulnerable tone and feel, like a man with his “…values broken down…”.
For those that don’t know, Griftegård is a Swedish word for a graveyard without a church, which is a very fitting name for this band. And solemn, sacred, and severe are also very good descriptors for them too, because this album is all three, and so much more.
This is beyond recommended. It’s essential that you own this album.
10 out of 10.
Griftegård on MySpace.