Review Summary: Doomy metal that is so much more than just doom
Sometimes a band creates something so sorrowful, despairing and ass-kickingly metal that you are blown away by the grandeur and atmosphere that also accompanies that work of art.
Streams Inwards is such an album. A band whose English name roughly translates to Sea Of Greys does an excellent job of conveying pure melancholy emotion in every song.
Full of off kilter time signatures, earth shattering lows, very impressive highs and well produced guitars and keyboards, Chilean doom metal band Mar De Grises have managed to create one of the best metal albums to have come out in 2010. Highly creative, Mar De Grises really keep the energy up throughout the album. While some doom can tend to drag, being overly simplistic and focusing on the atmosphere more than the instrumentation,
Streams Inwards is quite the opposite. The album is full of intricate riffs, crushing double bass and a great mixture of harsh and clean vocals. The keyboards really add a creepy vibe to the record, and yet they are used sparingly. The majority of the album focuses on the extremely depressed and sorrowful emotions conveyed.
Standout tracks such as Starmaker, The Bell And The Solar Gust, and Knotted Delirium show pure brilliance, marrying subtle piano and keyboard bits with astounding harsh and clean vocal sections. The result is truly satisfying. Rarely has an entire album captivated me so much. While the doom has really been downplayed on
Streams Inwards compared to previous works
The Tatterdemalion Express and
Draining The Waterheart anyone who enjoys listening to metal will find something to enjoy. Many of the songs delve into progressive territory, with song lengths averaging around 6 minutes a piece, this album is 56 minutes of pure enjoyment.
As mentioned before, the electronice and piano pieces scattered throughout the album add an extra element of beauty to the sorrow present in every song. Probably the most doomy song on the album is
A Sea Of Dead Comets, slow and plodding along at an unrelenting pace of shrieked vocals and simple drumming patterns.
Aphelion Aura features some soothing almost jazzy female vocals and electronic fuzz to slowly drown the listener in the audio waves of depression that this band is so good at presenting.
It is an exciting time for fans of this band to see what they will put out next. The progression from a doom band, to an overall well rounded metal band has begun on
Streams Inwards and will most likely continue in future records.
