Lamented Souls The Origins of Misery
Duplicate Records
2004
1.Essence of Wounds
2.Hybris
3.Var
4.Suffer Salvation
5.Demon Baby
6.Traces of You
7.Sprukken Maske
8.Var
9.Eternal Existence
10.Nemesis
11.Hybris
12.Sprukken Maske
13.Eternal Existence
14.Soulstorm
The Origins of Misery is a compilation of songs recorded throughout the last decade by LAMENTED SOULS, a 70s inspired doom band featuring Simen Hestnæs (aka ICS Vortex from DIMMU BORGIR) on vocals. (Actually, Hestnæs it seems is rather the versatile musician, also playing guitar, bass, e-bow, flute, and drums across several of the tracks.) Otherwise, there is an entire band in support, interchanging among instruments whenever they feel like it.
Musically, this is really very good with lots of SABBATH-like groove, mixing those blues-based metal riffs in with samplings of stoner rock. The essence of the 70s is effectively apparent with jam sections splattered throughout the album. If you like this sort of thing, then great, otherwise dont look for anything overtly innovative or revolutionary. Granted, the occasional use of flute or space keyboards add a nice touch, but again, its not like youre going to choose this over JETHRO TULL or HAWKWIND if thats indeed what youre after.
For most, the attraction of having an album like this is to perhaps witness Hestnæs singing cleanly throughout, whereas previously, fans would have lived with snippets of his vocal talent on occasional DIMMU BORGIR tracks (e.g. Hybrid Stigmata The Apostasy), and two BORKNAGAR offerings. Interestingly enough, this is perhaps where the album tends to fail in my opinion. Not to belittle his vocal abilities, but The Origins of Misery is the perfect example of having too much of a good thing. Quite honestly, Hestnæs has such a unique voice that it begins to over saturate the record, and truth be known, Im not sure if his style is all that well suited to this flavoring of retro-doom. When assessing his previous efforts with BORKNAGAR and DIMMU BORGIR, you tend to realize that their song structures change intelligently enough to take into account the differing style of vocals, where Hestnæs would sing cleanly over booming classical-type orchestrations and then aggressively over the extreme riffs. Obviously, thats not the case with LAMENTED SOULS with the style of music they play.
A good way to remedy this is to stop the album at track 7, after which some of the tracks begin to repeat and all the songs begin to blur. In other words, this might have been better released as an EP, but I recognize that die-hard followers would want the surplus material, so kudos to the label for gathering all this and packaging it together in one release. Good effort, and nice artwork to boot (although some lyrics would have been nice).
7/10
Duplicate Records
2004
1.Essence of Wounds
2.Hybris
3.Var
4.Suffer Salvation
5.Demon Baby
6.Traces of You
7.Sprukken Maske
8.Var
9.Eternal Existence
10.Nemesis
11.Hybris
12.Sprukken Maske
13.Eternal Existence
14.Soulstorm
The Origins of Misery is a compilation of songs recorded throughout the last decade by LAMENTED SOULS, a 70s inspired doom band featuring Simen Hestnæs (aka ICS Vortex from DIMMU BORGIR) on vocals. (Actually, Hestnæs it seems is rather the versatile musician, also playing guitar, bass, e-bow, flute, and drums across several of the tracks.) Otherwise, there is an entire band in support, interchanging among instruments whenever they feel like it.
Musically, this is really very good with lots of SABBATH-like groove, mixing those blues-based metal riffs in with samplings of stoner rock. The essence of the 70s is effectively apparent with jam sections splattered throughout the album. If you like this sort of thing, then great, otherwise dont look for anything overtly innovative or revolutionary. Granted, the occasional use of flute or space keyboards add a nice touch, but again, its not like youre going to choose this over JETHRO TULL or HAWKWIND if thats indeed what youre after.
For most, the attraction of having an album like this is to perhaps witness Hestnæs singing cleanly throughout, whereas previously, fans would have lived with snippets of his vocal talent on occasional DIMMU BORGIR tracks (e.g. Hybrid Stigmata The Apostasy), and two BORKNAGAR offerings. Interestingly enough, this is perhaps where the album tends to fail in my opinion. Not to belittle his vocal abilities, but The Origins of Misery is the perfect example of having too much of a good thing. Quite honestly, Hestnæs has such a unique voice that it begins to over saturate the record, and truth be known, Im not sure if his style is all that well suited to this flavoring of retro-doom. When assessing his previous efforts with BORKNAGAR and DIMMU BORGIR, you tend to realize that their song structures change intelligently enough to take into account the differing style of vocals, where Hestnæs would sing cleanly over booming classical-type orchestrations and then aggressively over the extreme riffs. Obviously, thats not the case with LAMENTED SOULS with the style of music they play.
A good way to remedy this is to stop the album at track 7, after which some of the tracks begin to repeat and all the songs begin to blur. In other words, this might have been better released as an EP, but I recognize that die-hard followers would want the surplus material, so kudos to the label for gathering all this and packaging it together in one release. Good effort, and nice artwork to boot (although some lyrics would have been nice).
7/10
