AVATARIUM — Avatarium (review)

AVATARIUM — Avatarium album cover Album · 2013 · Doom Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
5/5 ·
Nightfly
An album I can’t get enough of lately is this eponymous debut from Avatarium, a fairly new band but not lacking in experience with members coming from bands such as Candlemass, Royal Hunt and Tiamat. On their website they claim to be influenced Jethro Tull, Rainbow, Blue Oyster Cult and Black Sabbath. The latter is the most obvious as the emphasis is on doom metal with some sixties psychedelic touches thrown in here and there.

While on a musical level there’s no shortage of talent with each musician turning in a fine performance, their secret weapon is Jennie-Ann Smith whose gorgeous voice suits the music perfectly. She can certainly summon up plenty of power when it’s required but she’s refreshingly not a screamer and proves to be a versatile performer being equally adept at handling the melancholic quieter moments.

Seven songs in total with some of the heaviest riffs I’ve heard in recent years, made all the more effective by some effective use of light and shade. Opener Moonhorse is a magnificent statement of intent, alternating between slow brutal riffing and coming right down for the vocals. It shifts through a few changes including some blistering guitar solos before ending just breaking the nine minute mark. If any song was a benchmark to show what this band is all about and capable of then this is it. The good news is that most of the rest is of equal quality and largely in a similar vein though there’s some deviation through the more commercial sixties vibe of Boneflower with its lush melody. In fact strong melodies are prevalent throughout, not just in the vocals, but also on a musical level including Marcus Jidell’s excellent solos with some fine slide work thrown in for good measure.

Avatarium have produced a real winner here and as I’m a bit late picking up on it, it being released in 2013, hopefully I won’t have too long to wait for album number two.
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