Black Wreath - A Pyre of Lost Dreams

You could called Black Wreath a "super-group" keeping in mind the band consists of Kim Larsen, (ex-Saturnus, Of The Wand And The Moon and others), Blazing Eternity's vocalist Peter Mesnickow and Whelm's bassist Dave Miller. With such a line up, you would think Black Wreath knows its stuff as far as melodic Doom Death Funeral Doom is concerned and they do. But the band takes things a bit further into the dark realms of Funeral Doom and often delivers a powerful, depressing and heavy dose of sad Funeral Doom of some real quality.

The album is made of four tracks, the last one being the most ambient one. The three first are very long and extremely heavy, not so much in sound but in emotional depth.

The vocals shift from heavy growls to half spoken, half mumbled voice. It tops a thick layer of mournful guitars' lines, monotonous and yet with lyrical sounding guitar lines . Songs have a dark but tranquil vibe, the deeply sad moods the band slowly spews forth will get stuck on your mind. The production is a bit distant, which certainly is a good idea considering the type of atmosphere they are trying to get across but at times some of it seems to be lacking certain dynamics and stifles the some of the melodies. In some parts of the songs, there is some incredible tension that build and build but sadly there is no big endings which left me a little frustrated.

"The Black Holes of Your Mind" is the longest track at 15 minutes and is about as bleak as you can get. The vocals here shift between a narrative tone and crushing growls, but after nearly 6 minutes of this the guitars begin to stray elsewhere, the pace slows even further almost to the point of stopping completely. There is a acoustic guitar interlude that while sparse and predictable, hits hard emotionally speaking and creates a unexpected folk metal atmosphere. "Nocturnal Dominion" follows, and lacks much of the vibe of the first track. This is 13 minutes of deep, meandering, cavernous doom metal that crawls like some monolithic beast, the sound is broken up with some keyboards and chimes that adds something different to a track that i found largely dull even for a Funeral Doom track.

"Solitude Rising (Missing All Exits)" the third track is again very long, at 14 minutes, but at least manages to sound original but trying something different for a Funeral Doom band. There is some very somber riffs and experimental little, fluttering bells and guitar lines. "Nidstong" closes the album with nearly 8 minutes of minimal rainfall, and dark, low-end piano sounds. It might sound great in a movie soundtrack but here it just serves up a very mundane, boring way to finish a album. When its good this album is awesome but when its dull, its reach for a Tylenol time. Search out the good parts though and you will be rewarded, the rest is just too much of a trip into nothingness. 6/10

www.myspace.com/blackwreath