Burning Saviours is a name familiar to people
following the doom metal scene and rightfully so. You don't simply name
yourself after one of the best Pentagram songs and disappoint (or maybe you do,
who knows, I am sure there are examples out there). To this day, now including
their newest release simply titled: "Death", Burning Saviours have
added another immaculate title to their excellent, A-level doom metal
catalogue. A thirty-five minutes of brooding, lingering, godless doom
perfection.
For those
unfamiliar with the band, Burning Saviours hail from Örebro, Sweden, a place
which has also blessed us with the famous hardrock/traditional doom suspects
Witchcraft, as well as quite a few succesful stoner rock outfits, for those of
you who care for a cheeky reference. I guess you could say the band is from the
second wave of doom (or third, who ever can keep record of those things) and
have been around long enough to have released, in their case, four full-length
albums before "Death". As it turns out, I am a bit of a fossil myself
as I remember listening to their self-titled album and thinking it sounded
quite fresh. It was, of course, released in 2005 when such sound definitely
seemed like some fresh breeze, before the so many clones emerged in the swampy
waters of the Swedish scene. Surely hearing the warm analogue-reminscent guitar
tone and Mikael Monks sounding oh-god-so-much like Bobby Liebling was quite the
wow factor. Having that in mind, Burning Saviours haven't by any means changed
directions drastically, still keeping the same nostalgic, proto-hardrock sound
and analogue vibes with reference to those of us who dig us some seventees
sound. I feel like the music has gotten heavier and heavier, though, to
culminate into the lamentenius, bewildering, mystic goodness which is the
record I am reviewing today.
Let's take
"Death" as more of a soundscape than just music. 'Draug' opens up the
gates of the wretched land it has set in its own doomspace to walk you through
the grim land of everything foul and distant, while fog-like miasmal substances
in the air take your soul through this land to lead you on an epic journey of
self-realisation and inevitable death.. and Oh, no! You can't see the end of
it: "Death has come for you tonight!". Acoustic guitar leads the way,
then punishing Sabbath riffage breaks in for some fast realisation that you
have smelled the stench of death and have to run. The guitar is typical of
traditional doom with more or less a repetitive mid-paced riffage which breaks
in in all the right places to introduce some theatrical element while working
in perfect unison with the clean vocals. The second track, 'Crusade of Evil' is
the more upbeat, more rowdy battle-tune, which in doom often predisposes you
and prepares you for historically-themed lyrics of templers, soldiers, etc.
taking over some sort of mystic foreign land. Hell yeah, this horse-hoof
thundering melody could be heavy metal but is still pained in the darker
overtones of doom. After about four of five listens of the album I can say,
hands down, the third track, 'Nothing After' is in my top 3 favourite tracks of
the album, and favourite Burning Saviours songs ever, probably my favourite of
all with the extremely well-executed lyrics that are presented to you as some
sort of punishing sermon:
"There is
no Light to Carry you home!
You are about
to Die Alone" .. "
This is
followed by the first longer solo of the album, to add for the
perfectly-fitting increasing melancholy. 'Lamentations' is also more upbeat and
hoarse vocally, with a classic doom riff, to set the mood for a contender for
my favourite tune of the album, or maybe second favourite (will have to split
places with 'Nothing After') - 'Death'. The vocals tell the convincing truth
that some of us are always on the losing side, or maybe we are all on the
losing side because 'no choice is given, you just have to go, the sky turns to
grey' since the black winged creatures will take us all eventually.
"Death" exits the album with true grace and perfection in the form of
largely acoustically-led 'Silence' and 'Finally free', the dream-like tales of
forgotten pasts or to be forgotten presents? Melodies that sound like
minor-chorded final releases.
The only way I
can describe Burning Saviours is: "Joy through Sadness".
Listen and support:
Listen and support:
