Saturnus

This album could be viewed as a bold experiment for a typical doom metal band. This Scandinavian band have fused slow motion metal with those phlegm-laden grizzly bear vocals usually reserved for blast beat bands who have a hatred for God, like Deicide or Cannibal Corpse. The overriding feeling is much more gothic than metal, and with songs like "Inflame Thy Heart," "Drown My Sorrow" and "Thus My Heart, Weepeth For Thee," sounds like a This Mortal Coil album. Pretty much every song is an epic, a few with spoken word poems - like in the grandiose "A Poem (Written In Moonlight)." Musically similar to Nevermore or an icier Type O Negative, they incorporate an array of keyboards and very slow tempos. They are obviously very serious about the mystical and Arthurian nature of these cold and barren soundscapes. Saturnus tread a nano-thin line between gothic doom and complete, unadulterated absurdity. Whatever the case, it is a true rarity for a band in this idiom to try and inject some beauty into the dire hell in which they reside.