Rockfreaks.net

Grimlord

Dolce Vita Sath-anas

Written by: EW on 09/11/2009 13:23:05

What?! When an album causes the utterance of this word the product is likely to be a) downright weird, or b) horribly ill-conceived. The second studio album of Polish metallers Grimlord covers both those categories. Not for a total lack of quality in their songwriting and musicianship, but in a total lack of how to construct a unified, flowing album.

"Dolce Vita Sath-anas" you see is 9 songs long, with the first three being surprisingly coherent and listenable; a strong sense of black/thrash-tinged classic metal being laid down under a cloak of synth with a singer who's accent is enjoyable entertaining to listen to. However, from song four, "Shade Of Wrath Angels", the sound quality retreats into a cavern of under-produced guitars, over-produced synths and trigger happy drums, signalling the start of not just one or two, but 6 instrumentals with which to close the album. After a one two of the decent opening title track and "When The Heads Are Going Down" I frankly did not see this coming and it is a real let-down because an album full of this material would have been considerably stronger than what "Dolce Vita Sath-anas" turns out to be. From competent and catchy vocal melodies in the early stages, Grimlord instead end the album with songs like "Lamentation Sword" and "Ancient Land Of Ys", which may at moments be good in their own rights but songs which simply do not have the individual quality to carry the entire second half of the record. Of all the instrumental songs it is "Ancient Land Of Ys" which stands out. A gentle acoustic guitar piece for the first three of it's 7 minutes, it would serve delightfully in a synth-heavy BM album breaking up songs of fervent speed and hysteria on either side; however in it's "Dolce Vita Sath-anas" setting it only adds to the banality that had long been settling in at this point.

Awarding higher than the most average mark is too high an ask for an album that shows strong potential in the early stages with even hints of a proper and unique identity but which fades considerably by the time it's 49 minutes are up. Perhaps Grimlord might have been better served by chopping a number of songs and releasing an EP instead.

Download: Dolce Vita Sath-anas, When The Heads Are Going Down
For The Fans Of: Emperor, Falconer
Listen: Myspace

Release date: 2009
Self-released