Sjodogg - Landscapes Of Disease And Decadence

\r\n"Landscapes Of Disease And Decadence" is the debut from Sjodogg a band featuring members from Norwegian acts, Enthrall, Crest of Darkness, and The Flesh. Their music lies in black metal territories with many fast and furious parts, eerie acoustic passages and even some strange almost experimental arrangements all that wrapped up in a dark, severe atmosphere. Imagine Mayhem’s grimness united with Deathspell Omega’s abnormal sinuosity and this mix injected with Katatonia’s disheartenment. So I guess you could call this progressive black metal since the rhythm moves between frenetic blastbeats to slow, droning scales and calm acoustic transitions. The guitar tone is both scratchy and hollow and the riffs can be a bit repetitive sometimes with a really hypnotic effect while the drumming is varied to a point but most of the time is blasting behind the riffs. A far as the vocals section they twist from malicious black metal yells to death metal growls and to sorrowful and tortured cries and whispers.\r\n

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\r\nI’ve listened to this album many times due to its peculiar nature in order to come to a conclusion about my overall opinion. Well, what I really liked here was its Katatonia’s desperation, its grim, ice cold atmosphere but I also found its unusual diversions at times rather boring and meaningless and some of those acoustic passages more spoiling than enriching the whole effort. Some of you may find this album innovative and pleasantly impulsive but as far as me, it is just a good adventurous debut record that shows that this band has a grown potential for the future. \r\n

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\r\nVaso Prassa \r\n

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