Cemetery
Fog - Towards the Gates (12” MLP) (2014)
Iron Bonehead Productions 1st
August 2014
Review by Trevor Proctor
Finland’s
Cemetery Fog is a two piece group that plays an original blend of warped,
blackened doom with death metal influences – in March of this year I had the
pleasure of reviewing their demo “Shadows from the Cemetery”. This was released
in a limited quantity of 300 on cassette by Iron Bonehead Productions, who had
heard the self-released demo and decided to give this extremely talented band
an official, higher profile release.
At this stage I hoped it wouldn’t be long
before a further release would be scheduled and thankfully the 1st
of August sees Cemetery Fog return with a MLP, again from Iron Bonehead and hot
on the heels of Shadows from the Cemetery.
Towards
the Gates starts with an eerie piano intro which is used to help create a creepy,
weird atmosphere, setting the stage for thirty minutes of accomplished, diverse
and extremely well-constructed death influenced doom. Aside from this intro and
subsequent outro the remaining three tracks average over eight minutes each; the
first of which is Withered Dreams of Death. Quite a doomy track to start with
its well suited to the anguished vocals and keyboard tones in the background though
the beauty with Cemetery Fog’s music lies within their variation of both tempo
and style; illustrated perfectly by the twists and turns during this track and
when we combine this with the occasional background acoustic and keyboard
sections it makes for a very varied and compelling listen – no matter how long
Cemetery Fog’s tracks are they’re never ever boring or repetitive.
Embrace of
the Darkness follows suit with further fluctuation between style and pace, then
four minutes in they hit you out of the blue with a moment of beauty and
serenity featuring a stunning piano led acoustic section; a moment of sheer
brilliance and further proof of the varied yet extensive ability and vision of
this band.
Cemetery
Fog pulls another rabbit out of the hat during the next track, Shadow of Her
Tomb; it’s a heavy, slow, doom track to begin with it that soon gives way to yet
another moment of beauty when a female vocal kicks in, bringing another change
in style that’s a brave yet ingenious piece of song writing. It’s this
ingenuity and ambition that impresses me the most about Cemetery Fog; this is a
band prepared to take risks yet they seem comfortable doing so and carry it off
with the greatest of ease – there’s more than enough richness and variation in
their music to prove they’re a band destined for greatness.
I thoroughly
enjoyed the demo but this MLP blew me away; since reviewing Shadows from the
Cemetery I’ve been patiently waiting to hear more from this band and thankfully
there’s no disappointment – fan as I am of their previous release with Towards
the Gates Cemetery Fog have taken their abilities to another level altogether; improved
production combined with their original death-doom, varied dynamics, female
vocals and other little snippets of sound and effects creates a further depth
and richness to their sound than previously heard. Every band needs to make a
progression when moving from demo to official release and Cemetery Fog have
done this without a hitch, this is a faultless release – now all we have to do
is what for their debut full length album.
Absolutely stunning from beginning
to end.
10/10
Tracklist:
1
– Intro
2
– Withered Dreams of Death
3
– Embrace of the Darkness
4
– Shadow of Her Tomb
5
– Outro: Towards the Gates
Cemetery Fog - Towards the Gates 12” MLP is released by Iron Bonehead Productions on 1st August 2014.
No comments:
Post a Comment