Ava Inferi - Blood of Bacchus

Hailing from Portugal, it may come as a surprise to know that Ava Inferi features former Mayhem guitarist Blasphemer. Don’t expect "Blood Of Bacchus" to sound anything like Mayhem though because the two are simply a world apart. This is their third album and it is a logical continuation from their previous album "The Silhouette". Nothing really has changed expect the songs are longer this time around, the vocals of Carmen Susana Simoes are much better and the sound is a little less gothic than before. It's still dark and solemn straight metal with a heavy doom atmosphere with operatic vocals that are more darker, colder and emotion-less despite her occasional screams. Even though there is nine songs on the album, it plays out as one long piece of music with all the songs blending into one another in a well constructed manner. "Blood Of Bacchus" is the band's most complex album to date despite at times the songs can be very barren, there is no big effects, no keyboards, no orchestration and times you will hear a lonely cello or piano making the overall mood seem very intensely cold. It's that mixture between the complex and the simple that gives the album the little strength it has and some thought has gone into the arrangement of the songs. Us reviewers always like to put tags on bands because sometimes that is the only approach to describing some albums. This is album is a bit different, it is closer to "gothic doom" that any other sub-genre of doom metal but at times it strays away from both forms of metal. The gothic side of the album shines on tracks like "Last Sign of Summer" and "Colors of the Dark" but at the same time this is where the band sounds the most typical of bands in this genres. Not surprises here, just two tracks that simply recycle a style that has already been done to death. Elsewhere there is much better songs to feast on like the extensive "Appeler Les Loups" which showcases the thematic angle of the band. It has a haunting atmosphere but suffers badly with a flaw that occurs on most of the tracks on the album and that is there is no climax to the songs even though the tracks are crying out for some sort of climatic ending. The songs tend to fall flat at times. Not that is all bad, from the piano-driven final track "Memoirs" to the title track which verges on the hysterical. Then there is capella duet with Garm of Ulver fame on Black Wings, the ominous bass sound on "Be Damned" and "Tempestade" which uses some type of Portuguese guitar and the Portuguese language to create a kind of folksy vibe. The real star of the band is vocalist Carmen Simoes who puts in a stirring performance pushing her voice from quiet and breathy alto to operatic soprano. "Blood Of Bacchus" has some great moments and has its fair share of pure heaviness and gloomy atmosphere but still doesn't sound as good as their debut which kind of tells me they are not really progressing. I still think they have a long way to go however but i am sure many will disagree. 5/10

Ava Inferi @ MySpace