Seamount - Light II Truth

Seamount is known as a traditional doom metal band from Germany, influenced by Pentagram, Black Sabbath, Saint Vitus and Revelation( or so everyone says,i don't hear it much myself anymore) with a large amount of classic rock and new wave of British heavy metal influence as well. They have four extremely talented musicians plus on vocals, none other than Phil Swanson who has worked with numerous bands with the most well known ones being Upwards Of Endtime, Atlantean Kodex and Hour Of 13. Their debut album released in 2008 was a instant classic album full of insanely catchy riffs and memorable songwriting so it was always going to be a hard album to beat and personally i feel "Light II Truth" is a little weak in certain areas compared with the classic debut album. However there is still some good tunes to be had on the album and seeing as the album clocks in at 75 minutes, you have plenty to choose from. The first thing to grab your attention is the package itself, brilliant album artwork with a 28 page booklet full with lyrics and paintings. They are also on Church Within Records which means they have joined forces with some of the greatest bands on the planet. The opening track "Out of the Dark" is a killer slab of doom meets rock and roll with a cool riff and haunting wailing lead guitar work. The guitar duo of Tim Schmidt and Andy Kummer are on fire and Swanson's slight Ozzy style of vocals compliment the music perfectly. They are not nearly as doom as you might think though, second track "Together Wear the Cross" is pretty much standard rock music and is actually rather commercial sounding. By the time you get to the third track "Honey Flower" you soon get the picture, Seamount are not a doom metal band at all, just a really good hard rock band. The musicianship is faultless, classy, precise and with loads of feeling but the guitar sound is a little too thin and clean for my tastes. "The Paradise" is one of the darker tracks on offer here but finishes up sounding like a extended interlude more than a actual song.

"Vampyropoda" gets pretty close to doom metal as we know it with a very Candlemass sounding type of riff and has a epic atmosphere despite not being a very long track at all. "That Witch" leaves you confused at first, almost sounding like something off a Foreigner or a Boston record but all is forgiven pretty quickly when the track begins to rock out in early 80's heavy metal fashion. The final track on the album is a 9 minute epic called "Into the Light" and is the strangest yet most original track on the album. It has a guitar line i am sure you have heard before but i bet you wont be able to figure out where but the entire album has that vibe. The rest of the album left me cold to be honest about it, i loved the debut but this album seems to be full of more filler than killer. The playing is great, no doubt about that. The production is alright too but the guitar tones lack a bit of power for my liking, the bass and drumming is delivered with passion, quality and finesse. Where the album falls down for me is the lack of catchy riffs, there is nothing on this album to compete with "Sleeping Wizard" from the first album for example. The other problem is it is just too long with too many songs that don't stick in your memory. The urge to hit the skip comes up quite often but to be fair if you took the best tracks on here and made it into one album, then you would have something really solid. They also seem to get the "doom" tag still which is a little mis-leading as i don't hear many doom elements at all on Light and Truth but judging it on what it is, i will say at least half this album is great rock music. Make up your own mind with this one...6/10

Seamount Myspace page