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: : REVIEW : :
Put in your piercings, bust out the mascara and paint on the black nail polish
because there's a new kid on the block, and he's a Goth, and not from where you
would expect. The icy cold winter's of Norway has produced the most fertile farmland
for the black metal scene. Dimmu Borgir, Immortal, Mayhem, and Dark Throne are just
the big names amongst many others to come from there. But now Norway has also
produced the excellent Crowhead, who have very little do with their countrymen.
The band is a goth metal, to say simply. But they are a little
more than just that. Their new CD, FROZEN has slight touches of other genres that
permeate the songs to great effect.
Vocalist Jo Inge Slangsvold is a dead ringer for Johann Edlund of Tiamat, Sweden's
top goth metal export. Although that band has turned in it's make up in exchange for
Pink Floyd albums and gotten far too experimental for me. Slangsvold, who is also in
the black metal band, Ragnarok, is joined in darkness by Oyvind Trinborg on guitars.
Apparently both were also in the "cult" band Shadow Dancers. "Cult" of course refers
to the fact that they never made if out of the underground. Hopefully that won't be
the same case with Crowhead.
Two guests, Ted Skogman and Fredrick Darum, round out the band. The pair supplies
drums, synth and additional guitars and both were members of the popular European
goth act, Apoptygma Berzerk.
 All
the tracks on the album are dark and brooding, but never slow and plodding, as is
the case with many goth acts. In between Slangsvold lamented but soaring vocals are
some thick sludge like guitars on "My Angel" and they compliment each other nicely.
Interestingly enough, there is a remix of this same track later on, but devoid of
guitars. I really didn't care for the latter version. That's another thing that made
me like this album so much is that even though they are tagged "goth", they don't
subdue the guitars like similar bands.
I especially liked the dynamics of "Fire Eye (kill you)". As if to
offset the super melancholic chorus, Slangsvold sings in a gruff death metal tone.
"Mad Man" sees vocal effects used for the whole song, save for the hauntingly
beautiful chorus. On this track and the album as a whole, there is a good amount of
techno leanings and modern mechanical studio wizardry. But there's just the right
mix of electronic nuances to accentuate the songs without making it overbearing or
turning Crowhead into an industrial act.
I would recommend Frozen to anyone who's looking for a little something on the
darker end of the spectrum. Real dark. I think Tiamat said it best for the genre as
a whole when they said, "Any color that you like, as long as it's black".
Rating: 8
Reviewer: Christopher Alo
: : Visit the artist web
site : :
: : Discography : :
Love Letter (demo) - 2000
Frozen - 2002
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Record Label : :
http://www.mykingdommusic.net/#
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