Mar De Grises

Draining The Waterheart

Written by: PP on 25/12/2008 14:41:26

South America may be bloody far away from Scandinavia, but yet it is in Chile where we find perhaps thus far the most plausible contender for the progressive doom metal masters Opeth. Mar De Grises applies the very elements of Opeth on their new album "Draining The Waterheart" to such extent that on around five minutes into "Sleep Just One Dawn", the first track on the CD, I was sure that I was listening to the majestic soundscape of an Opeth song from "The Grand Conjuration" rather than an obscure band from the other side of the globe.

Kudos for the band, because it's increasingly rare to find as lush, as rich and thoroughly constructed soundscapes as on, for instance, "Kilometros De Nada". The band slowly builds up, blends, and mish-mashes beauty and misery together, taking the sort of desperate atmosphere of a Dark Tranquillity song, slowing it down to a crawl, expanding the breadth of their sound into every direction, and finally finishing the job with the miserable voice of their growling vocalist. When I say miserable here, I don't mean bad, I just mean the tone of his voice and the way it is met by the Swallow The Sun-esque everlasting doom progression to create something that is both ugly and beautiful simultaneously.

Fans of My Dying Bride and Anathema will surely also find what they are looking for in a progressive / doom release here, and even if you're into the incredibly well layered and picturesque sound of a band like Ahab, you surely won't be disappointed here. The only grievance anyone can possibly have with Mar De Grises is the lack of power in the vocals, but this might just be a production error, it is sometimes difficult to make out the vocals as they blend into the instruments. But this could've been made on purpose, who knows. If, however, Mikael Åkerfeldt would be behind the mic instead, Mar De Grises would be playing arena-sized stages very shortly.

Download: Kilometros De Nada
For the fans of: Opeth, Swallow The Sun, Anathema
Listen: Myspace

Release date 14.04.2008
Firebox Records

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