Avatarium – Death, Where is Your Sting
8/10
In the promo material it says: dark, heavy & poetic. I can dig that. I can agree with the description as well. It is not often that you do that. Promo material is often over exaggerated. With a fair bit.
Here the promo material is quite subtle, to the point and direct. In a way just like the album. This is not a record that will find top 20 in many places. Which is somewhat a shame.
But I do not think stadiums, top of the pops and the like is really Avatariums goal here. They seem to want to create ambient, atmospherically, melancholic doom metal. They do that.
Most of the songs I imagine would be pleasant to drown to. It would be my choice anyway. It soothes you, at the same time as it is so dark and depressive at the same time.
In the track “Stockholm” I can feel the icy wind going through my bone marrow walking along the southside of the town close to water. Lovely place, but it is a bit painful just at that time to be there.
The title track on the other hand is more upbeat if you can attach that word to Avatariums songs. In this case I feel I must. The acoustic verse and lingering piano going into a very melodic and catchy chorus makes this song very accessible.
“Psalm for the Living” is such an emotional piece of music. Just closing my eyes and taking in the amazing voice of Jennie-Ann Smith partnered with the finely layered music and the overall feeling of the song is great.
My favorite song is “Nocturne”. A real ass-kicker of a doom song. Fleeting intro, heavy drums and riff going into a midtempo killer track all the way through. Not surprising it is a bit Candlemass resembling. With all the good references.
All in all, this is an album that sends you between leaning back and just listen to some doom to challenging you as a listener to figure out what is going on with the music. Diverse in tempo and melodies it is a good 45 minutes of music.
Band: Avatarium
Title: Death, Where is Your Sting
Label: AFM
Date of release: 2022-10-21
Rate: 8/10
Stand Out Track: Nocturne
Country of Origin: Sweden
Playing Time: 45:17
