In Loving Memory - Negation Of Life ...

After three years between albums, the Spanish band In Loving Memory returned with an album that is more of a doomy effort compared to their last album, 'Tragedy & Moon.' However, the band is one of those crossover acts that still rides the borderline between death metal and melodic doom metal without never really nailing either genre but that is not a bad thing in this case. This newbie, 'Negation Of Life' displays the band sounding more mature and much more sure of itself than in the past. The album released on the Solitude Productions label out of Russia is a natural progression from earlier works in many ways but it is also far more intense and atmospheric.

Starting with 'Even A God Can Die' and 'Skilled Nihilism' the album gets off on the right foot, delivering a barrage of intensity, bleak emotion all held together with catchy chugging riffs. The crossover appeal of this band doesn't take long to rear its menacing head with black metalish growls and even a piano part which has a very atmospheric black-metal vibe about it. The main change for In Loving Memory is the switch from the more gothic-flavored style they had on the early demos and first album to this, a death-doom crossover approach. A lot of this has come about with the addition of Juanma  (guitars & vocals) who took over from a female goth-rock kind of vocalist that they had back in 2007. The band has certainly embraced a lot of traditional doom, funeral doom, and death-doom elements and inserted it into their (still) deathly sounds and the band sounds much better for it. The songs are more hook-laden than before but without sacrificing any of the brutality and intensity.

'Skilled Nihilism' proves itself to be one of the album's highlights. It is not the most creative, inventive or original track on the album but it is easily the most memorable. 'Adversus Pugna Tenebras' is a long but interesting track where they DO unleash some creativity and more complex than usual arrangement ideas. The following title track however is when this album seems to dig itself a bit of a hole. This 8 minute epic is pretty much over just as it starts and lacks any of the spark that is heard on the albums earlier tracks. The album does bounce back a bit with 'November Cries' and especially 'Shimmering Divinity' which is a nice blend of pulverizing death-doom riffing and menacing but hooky melody lines. It is with this track the album hits its peak but never regains its strength. The next three tracks, 'Through A Raindrop,' 'Celestial,' and 'Nulla Religio, Solum Veritas ' which ends the album are just more of the same but without the kick factor. Indeed these songs are heavy, emotional, well constructed and played but lack the spark that makes the rest of 'Negation of Life' so memorable.

In Loving Memory deliver some twists to the norm in death doom on 'Negation Of Life' but that doesn't mean it is always good as it is the more straight-forward moments on this release that seem to have the biggest impact. However and this is a big however, most of this 63 minute release is satisfying as even the weaker moments which are mostly in the albums last 20 minutes are still volume-worthy death-doom onslaughts. How much of this that can past as "doom" is debatable as they are still treading the line between death and doom metal but this is an album that is very hard to put down. The flaws are minor and its pleasures are major and the band should be well-pleased with this fine release. A special mention must go to the Solitude Productions/Badmoodman label who have really been releasing some great albums in the past 6 months or so and this is no exception. This will excite both death metal and doom metal fans who like their doominess to be a bit more up-beat and chugging than the usual doom metal that currently being released....8/10

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