Graveyard Of Souls is a recently formed Spanish band devoted to melodic death doom with obvious 90s references. Raul and Angel, who are certainly not novice musicians and are also active with the death bands Authority Crisis and Mass Burial, evidently vent their more melancholic side in this, their debut record, as well as their explicit devotion to the sounds that brought into vogue early Tiamat (those up to Clouds), Crematory and, for those who remember them, Godgory, among others. So rather than death doom, for Shadows Of Life, it might be more appropriate to speak of melodic death, however, in its darkest sense and in any case rather far from what we also know as Gothenburg Sound. That being said, Graveyard Of Souls‘ debut will not go so far as to upset the hierarchies of the aforementioned subgenres, but it stands out as a far more than decent work even if, probably, it will prove to be of more interest to the “differently young,” like yours truly, who lived through that era already in adulthood. The work of the Iberian pair is appreciated for its genuineness, combined with a series of apt melodies, all achieved through a rather naive approach devoid of particular stylistic refinements but equally effective: tracks such as the title track or the following Dreaming Of Some Day To Awake convince thanks to guitar lines capable of imprinting themselves in the memory without excessive difficulty and the same cover of Mad World by Tears For Fears, an operation with a considerable risk of boomerang effect, is proposed in a rather credible manner. The album has the defect of losing a little in intensity in its second half and the use of a fairly flat growl in the long run certainly does not help, but the fact remains that Graveyard Of Souls, in the end, offer us three quarters of an hour of exceedingly pleasant music.

2013 – F.D.A. Records