AVATARIUM: Hurricanes And Halos (DOOM): review / opinion to read on Music Waves

In the life of a musician, some encounters are more valuable than others. For Leif Edling, a tutelary figure of the doom who is of course no longer to present, the junction between his stainless talent as a composer and that of Marcus Jidell, for a long time guitarist with Royal Hunt before making a quick move to Evergrey (on "Glorious Collision"), marks an obvious turning point in his long and prolific career. First associated, only live, in Candlemass, the two men work together for four years, between Avatarium and The Doomsday Kingdom, that is to say four albums (without counting a few crumbs) already boxed. It's as if the bass player has finally found his ideal partner, his alter-ego, to form a pair promised to become legendary in the bosom of a heavy doom enriched with progressive arabesques.

A year and a half after having given birth to "The Girl With The Raven Mask" which did better than transforming the essay while its eponymous predecessor had nevertheless set the bar very high, Avatarium is already back with "Hurricanes And Halos" which affirms even more the flamboyant signature of a (super) band that turns lead into gold. Backed by the faithful Swedish bassist's faithful, drummer Lars Sköld (Tiamat) and keyboardist Carl Westholm (Jupiter Society), the hard core of the band remains more than ever constituted by the 70s guitar and by the tragic and aerial vocals of his muse, Jennie-Ann Smith and by the strong presence of Leif Edling even though he left the bass to Mats Rydström, but his easily identifiable writing gives the impression that these telluric lines nevertheless emanate from his four tempered steel strings. One only has to listen to 'A Kiss (From The End Of The World)' and its ultra-heavy armature to measure how much its claw remains strong.

The power of his creative breath being no longer to be proven, "Hurricane And Halos" does not disappoint. Better still, it clarifies a little more an identity between hard rock, doom and progressive music. A bit as if the Golden Age Deep Purple and Rainbow, high on Viagra per box of twelve, were mating with a brilliant female organ with a strange magnetic glow. There is Ronnie James Dio in the expressiveness of this song whose flights of fancy also evoke those of Mats Leven (Krux) or Robert Lowe (Candlemass).

However, although he wrote six of the eight tracks of this third offering, Edling seems less present this time in this 'Road To Jerusalem' very oriental or 'Medusa Child', jewel of an evolving doom, tainted with a layer of sadness and haunted by the ghost of Jon Lord. With the intelligence that characterizes him, the bassist faded away, allowing all the forces that irrigate the band's sound to merge.

The result is a more homogenous record than its predecessors, witness this 'Into The Fire - Into The Storm' which, in the great Blackmorian tradition, launches the listening in an incisive way and on which hovers the shadow of the man in black while the keyboards puke everywhere. More atmospheric, 'The Starless Deep' is bewitching, 'The Sky At The Bottom Of The Sea' destroy everything in this path, 'When Breath Turns To Air' plunges the listener into a fluffy, slow and delicate breathing atmosphere, while the eponymous conclusion unfolds its instrumental character with a refined accuracy.

"Hurricanes And Halos' finds the perfect balance between the raw strength of doom and the subtle aromas of progressive (hard) rock in an alloy powerfully embodied by a feminine vocal that radiates a dark glow. - Official website

AVATARIUM

HURRICANES AND HALOS

NUCLEAR BLAST

DOOM