| Reviews for Gloomy Grim - Blood, Monsters, Darkness: | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| User Reviews: | Your Review:|
Ahhh! Where to I begin with this band? I guess, at the beginning, which is with this album. I thought I was the only one who new them and who they are, for these Finns are one of the most underknown bands around in metal today. Its not just Gloomy Grim, they have so many offshoot bands, its hard to keep up. The members of Gloomy Grim could also be known as Soulgrind, because four of the five members here are also in Soulgrind. This was the only album made by GG, that had Whisper Lilith singing verses, whereas she has a fulltime membership in Soulgrind. Pity, for she has a very nice voice. The music is mostly Blackened Pagan Horror metal, for lack of another name for it. It covers allot of antichristian theme of which I don't care to understand, I like their musical style. Lets just say I have all of their albums and consider myself a BIG fan. I can tell you this, they were, as yougsters, big fans of Black Sabbath, for you can hear it in their music. A very good debut album and I'll have more to tell in future reviews at this site. | Review by: DENNIS R. What do you get when you mix Beherit with Nightwish, two of Finland's biggest names? Well, certainly not Gloomy Grim! What Gloomy Grim actually is, is one of those ‘black’ metal bands that uses a lot of keyboards, and can’t be taken seriously, in the same line as bands such as Dimmu Borgir. However, Gloomy Grim has managed to make some sort of classic in this subgenre of bands normally rejected by both ‘real’ black metal fans and gothic metal fans. For in the subgenre of pseudo- black metal, appreciable keyboard-play is valued, and this release has plenty of that, and in this subgenre the anti-christian lyrics usually get taken to such levels that it becomes a parody of itself, unless you take them with a lump of salt, and Gloomy Grim excels in doing absurd anti-christian lyrics as well. From the monumental opener track, ‘War’, blasphemic engrish comes at you over stomping guitars and intricately done yet relatively straightforward and even mostly simple synth-lines. Most of the lyrics are in the vein of War’s “Like pack of wolves // We hunted our preys at night // Why did they put you into holy ground // When you died?”. The theme of anti-christianity and longing for the underworld runs throughout the album’s lyrics, and occasionally reaches levels of absurdity, like when wishing a lot of pain on Jesus or commending church-burnings. If you take them with a pinch of salt or two, they’re fun, especially with the slightly awkward ‘grim’ vocals. One of the things that makes this album listenable and not just mock-worthy, is how catchy the music can be. The songs are solid, and in their symphonic way, even moderately headbangable. The guitars are how they should be, solid in the mix and relatively varied, and the drums are tight and done by a really well-programmed drumcomputer, in such a way that it doesn’t bother me that it is a drumcomputer. The male vocals sound a bit forced in their ‘grimness’, but there’s room for vocal emphasis that gets utilised. The female vocals however, are a bit off-key, which is bad (no wonder they dropped her for the next release), except when they’re used as chants in a keyboard-sample like fashion. I suspect the keyboards are recorded separately twice, as commonly two keyboard-lines run over each other (usually a piano combined with either chants or violin-pluckings). It’s a nice effect, and together with the other instruments make the songs a solid whole, for symphonicy pseudo- black goodness. The other thing that makes this album very listenable is the excellent production. I’m told Holy Records commonly have the best possible production, and I’m not inclined to disbelieve that fact based on this record. Not only are all the instruments clearly in the mix in proper doses, there’s also several of ‘production-noodles’, like a track that starts at –0:20 with weird background noises for those 20 seconds. Hey, extras are extras. Oh and the hidden bonus-bit at the end made me laugh, especially after doing something else, not expecting it after several minutes of silence. All in all however, this album shouldn’t be taken as a laugh-riot, but more as a surprisingly good symphonic pseudo-black metal release. As long as you don’t take this album and band seriously, the record might even make you smile. Album highlights: War, and Blood. Over the Mountain, the Ozzy-cover isn’t that bad for a song that gets raped, and Crucifixion, the keyboard instrumental (except for the utterly grim utterance “Armageddon...ist…here!”) has it’s own charm. 86/100 Review by: Egregius Great Album!!!! Full of new ideas, thoughts and emotions!!! I recommend it for painters, very nice atmosphere for drawing and suffering!!! Respect! Review by: dark-girl
|
(To get a username and password you have to register.) Back to band page |
| |||||||