Album Review: Grief Collector - En Delirium
Doom lovers are in for a treat this week when Grief Collector release new album 'En Delirium' and we bring you not one, but two reviews of this heavy album from the doom super group!
Reviewed by Matt Williams
Grief Collector are a 3-piece doom metal band who sound like they’ve come from the inner earth’s core and are here to haunt your dreams at night.
With Robert Lowe on vocals, sounding like a Norse God, opening track 'Corridors' is hard not to like, with insane laughing halfway through, and a cool drum solo, which sets the tempo. The riffs are crunchy, like a shot of adrenaline in the arm, the melodies are mountainous before leading into 'Wintersick' where the steady, tight riffs, tempo changes and infectious vocals, feels like an evil mermaid luring a ship of sailors to their impending doom.
Within seconds of 'Our Poisonous Ways' if your feet aren’t tapping or your head isn’t banging, then you are listening to the wrong type of music. The beat is like a steamroller, flattening all before it, and the riffs from Matt Johnson are killer, allowing the song to flow effortlessly, whilst the vocals are atmospheric, and feel like poison being injected into your veins.
The middle songs in the album bring out more doomy goodness. 'The Letting Go' has chunky heavy riffs, reverberating around a scary spoken word section, adding real horror movie type tension to the song, whilst 'When Sanity Eludes Me' has sinister overtones, with a slow, brooding beginning, the riffs get faster, making you feel like being trapped in an asylum, the door slamming shut as Lowe bellows "Beware, there is no turning back”.
'Knee Deep in Devils' feels like waking up in a mist, and being dragged towards your slaughter, whilst somebody recites a Shakespeare sonnet to you. The immense, killer bassline is spine chillingly superb, and I think they’ve invented a new sub-genre, Gloriously Doomy Love Songs anyone?!?!
The final few songs, continue in a similar vein, with drummer Brad Miller, displaying his excellent talents, particularly on the final song 'Scorned Hearth' with the band in full flow, working together effortlessly to bring an excellent end to an excellent album
Reviewed by Jon Wigg
If you want modern doom metal with an authentic old school sound, there are plenty of albums and bands to choose from. Black Sabbath riffs abound these days and while most certainly, this is not a bad thing, a lot of offerings are listenable but pretty average. So to stick out of the crowd, takes something a little special. And that’s where the latest album from Grief Collector comes in.
Grief Collector is made up of Matt Johnson on guitar and bass (Signs of Reign), drummer Brad Miller (Among the Serpents) and vocalist Robert Lowe (Solitude Aeturnus, Candlemass), and they have produced, in 'En Delirium', an outstanding modern doom/sludge album filled with old school touches and modern elements, blended together in 9 heavy tracks.
The quality of the musicianship, vocals and songwriting in evidence here makes this album stand out. It’s simple when it needs to be, complex in parts and always deferential to the doom originators. Traditional in its feel with occasional flashes of modern technique, it combines crushing riffs with atmospheric drums and vocals perfectly and the result is superb.
‘Corridors’ opens up and is a great opener. The doom is spread thickly before the pace picks up slightly during the excellent solo. ‘Wintersick’ trudges along as a great doom song should before the final couple of minutes provide a windswept homage to the main riff.
‘Our Poisonous Ways’ adds in a mid-paced stoner metal element to the album and is more than welcome. It swings along brilliantly before ‘The Letting Go’ combines a faster start and an almost funereal middle section.
‘Where Sanity Eludes Me’ and ‘Knee Deep in Devils’ continue the slow pace and showcase the ability of Grief Collector to emulate their name - there is a real feeling of loss and sorrow in both of these songs.
With a title like ‘10 Days (of Disbelief)’ , the next track does exactly what it says on the tin, injecting some acoustic guitar in perfect spots and the vocal performance of Lowe really shines here. ‘Misery Mongers’ tones down the heavy and ups the atmosphere again as the superb bass work from Johnson perfectly complements the slow drumwork from Miller who is excellent with the fills being present where needed and absent when not. A definite highlight track for me.
The album closes with the epic ‘Scorned Heart’ which is almost an archetypal doom metal song and a fine way to finish the album.
Overall, if you are a fan of bands like Candlemass and Crypt Sermon, then this release is definitely one you should check out. If you are new to the genre, this would be an excellent starting point.
