Souldrainer
Heaven's Gate

Swedish death metal band Souldrainer is back with their second album and on the face of it, it is an album that shows lot of promise as it is a melodic, atmospheric death metal band who does not have a name that is utterly stupid and neither does the logo look like shit. Moreover it has an interesting title that might be referring to the sect with the same name, common knowledge should allow you to recall what happened to them. The lyrics also seem to refer to this, at least the bits I paid attention to. I was at first really disappointed with this album as I thought it was dreadful, and it has taken me about two months since my first listen and something like seventeen play throughs to finally feel ready to write this review.

The band is not really that difficult, they are a slightly atmospheric death metal band - think Hypocrisy if you know them and you are in the ballpark. The main focus seems to be on the atmospheric keys and the vocals that vary from grunting to some dark massing, all of course with both feet in the extreme genre. The variation on the album is not massive I would say and that makes it a bit strange that the band has decided to put out almost fifty minutes of music on twelve tracks. The sound is pretty good and very melodic so the production is good I would say, the guitar often drown in everything else and as does the drums making this band sound a bit on the softer side for a death metal band. And it is not as dark as the cover art would lead you to believe, sometimes it feels a bit like putting a growler on a song by Kansas or ELO.

I think that this album has grown a bit on me since first hearing it as back then I was thinking between a rating of one and two but in time I have grown to appreciate some of the songs quite a bit, the first one is very good and also the ending title track and there are also parts of many songs on the album that is very good as well and when you are really starting to go down on detail level and dissect it becomes a very interesting album. The problem is just that it puts you off any desire to want to dissect it musically as the facade it puts out is one of tiredness and dullness which stops you from taking notice of anything as you just end up not paying attention, but when you do it feels alright or good which also makes it a bit of a strange album but the overall sense is still that it is a tired album. So besides the first and last song there is really nothing that catches my interest and I find it being a rather dreary album to work through, not bad that I want to throw up, it is just not interesting.

I think the nonexistent guitars along with the repeating atmospheric elements makes it feel like there is no variation on the album and it being close to fifty minutes long hardly changes that. It feels a bit like a wasted opportunity considering how interesting the band does sound in their flashes of brilliance, unfortunately those are just too few and too far between and that makes this band end up feeling rather ordinary and ordinary in today’s musical world that is overflowing with bands everywhere just isn’t enough. These guys really have to up their game in case they want to do well, and please do something about the vocals which are the biggest letdown of the entire album.

A little note of caution added here though, if you are really into only this kind of music and adores bands like Hypocrisy and so one, you might find this alright. I have seen reviews around the internet to indicate such a thing at least, for me it only drains my soul and makes me tired. So a tired album with some good stuff and a cool looking cover artwork is what it is.