Liquid Graveyard

The Fifth Time I Died

Written by: PP on 10/06/2011 02:46:34

Behind the moniker Liquid Graveyard stands a man named John Walker, the ex-frontman of the halfway prolific death metal band Cancer from Britain, who had their prominence during the early to mid 90s. Since then he has married a Spanish metal chick who goes by the name Raquel, and the couple decided to go for a new project, which presumably combines the influences of them both in a rather unpredictable manner, hiring two other members in the process.

Their sophomore album "The Fifth Time I Died" is a product of said collaboration, featuring a rather unusual and odd combination of genres in a manner that can only be described as avant-garde. Elements of doom, death, gothic metal, experimental metal, and even progressive death metal are all found in abundance, though with extra focus on experimental and gothic by the sounds of it. Raquel handles all vocals, which includes both high pitch soprano typical to generic gothic metal as well as a low-end shriek/growl attempt. Now, I say attempt because her voice isn't strong enough to sustain enough power for an effective delivery. The gothic vocals are better, though nowhere near the elite in the genre, but when juxtaposed together in a progressive metal/rock soundscape, it all begins to sound...weird. And not in a good way, either.

A total failure the record is not, however. A song like "Violent Skies" has reasonably good rock riffing and memorable, if somewhat faint and dreamy vocal work by Raquel. The song does drag on for about two or three minutes longer than it needs to, which is a problem that recurs throughout the whole album. Because for every interesting avant-garde arrangement, there's a minute or two of pointless repetition and passages that simply go nowhere. That said, some credit has to be given where credit is due: on paper this combination of genres is awful, but on record it works surprisingly well, albeit never quite well enough to enjoy a 'good' rating.

Download: Violent Skies, Beholder
For the fans of: Avant-garde metal
Listen: Myspace

Release date 28.03.2011
Rising Records

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