Day: May 10, 2017

We had already dealt with the Spanish Graveyard Of Souls a few years ago, on the occasion of their first full length Shadows Of Lifes. Authors of a good gothic death doom, at that time ours didn’t appear able to rise beyond an average level, however appreciable, and it’s not that the impression goes to change much with this new Pequeños Fragmentos De Tiempo Congelado, album that comes after two other long-distance works, Infinitum Nihil and Todos Los Caminos Llevan A Ninguna Parte. Raul and Angel’s interpretation of the genre doesn’t leave room for particular criticism neither from the executive point of view nor from the production one (even if this last aspect can be improved), because in this genre I consider them marginal elements compared to the emotional potential of a work: the problem is that, in good substance, those flashes capable of making the sound identifiable are missing. It must be said, to Graveyard Of Souls‘ honour, that some tracks are certainly up to the situation, especially when they have a greater atmospheric breath: there is no lack of melodic cues of good workmanship, as in the good Entre Fragmentos De Locura, Cementerio De Ilusiones and Al Atardecer, which help to keep the album above the waterline without, however, the listener’s attention being captured with the necessary continuity. Surely the Iberian duo shows its best face when it approaches death doom with more reasoned rhythms and a greater search for emotionality, while the phases marked by the attempt to make the sound more catchy, in the passages close to melodic death or gothic, are not convincing also for the apparent stylistic discrasia that occurs in some moments of the album (rather superfluous, for example, the instrumental Across The Cygnus Loop). As for the debut album, there is nothing left to do but derubricate the work of Graveyard Of Souls to a pleasantly retro interpretation of these sounds, without, however, that the passage of time has led to the desired leap in quality.

2017 – Endless Winter