As the title suggests, this is some pretty gloomy shit, indeed. I'm actually shocked at how apt that description really is! "Gloomy" is one of my more beloved keywords when it comes to describing music of this caliber yet seldom are the albums that are truly deserving of that label. Cenotaph are clearly one of the few.
The Gloomy Reflections of our Hidden Sorrows is quite reminiscent of albums such as Dawn of Possession and Onward to Golgotha but there's also a smattering of early Carcass as well due to the assorted trills and vocalist Daniel Corchado's rather burpy vocal performance. For my money, Corchado was Incantation's second worst vocalist with the title being held by none other than John McEntee himself. Sure, I know that that album is dear to a lot of folks hearts as well as Corchado's performance but personally I've never been a huge fan of raspier vocals beyond, of course, the death/thrash bands of the '80's (Destruction, Sodom, Kreator, etc.) so, for me, that album faltered before realizing its full potential as a result. On this album, however, Corchado's vocal belch is much deeper and sort of caught between Craig Pillard and Bill Steer's frog-like burp on Carcass' earlier albums. Thank crikey for that as it fits the swampy riffing on this record like a glove.
Upon listening to this album you can tell that there was something special about this band. Unfortunately, Corchado would end up beating feet and forming The Chasm and the rest of Cenotaph would, in my opinion, change their approach drastically, adding in more melodic (-aka- GAY) riffery and such.
Trust me... forgot about the ultra-overrated Finnish bands from the early '90's, half of which worth a fuck and the other half are quite obviously novelty finds for some cyber-dweeb over on LastFM trying to show off how knowledgeable he is of the "underground" (by pouring over the internet, of course). Go dig this tasty slab of rotten flesh up and have at it.
No comments:
Post a Comment