I guess it must have been the cover artwork that dragged me towards this album. I kept seeing it every time I went to the local record store and I thought it was totally brilliant and definitely something different. So I bought it.
Bergraven is essentially the solo project of Swedish musician Pär with session drummer Perra alongside him. Bergraven is hard to pinpoint. It’s a fair mixture of doom metal with a black metal voice, and often times with ambient and experimental tendencies. The closest band I could think of that comes close to sounding similar is Shining, but Shining generally has some faster parts to their music while Bergraven is almost always slow and doomy.
The music is interesting because it often shifts between the doom sounds to suddenly a short purely acoustic or ambient section, and then quickly brings back the doom sound full force. The music is actually considerably melodic most of the time with some dark riffs and even a few solos, which is best displayed on, ‘Känsla av livets nästa skede.’ Pär’s vocals are also well performed and sound diverse throughout the record, though he writes all of his words in Swedish so I can’t comment on the lyrics. However the album’s title translates to ‘Death Visions’, so I’m sure the lyrics don’t speak of anything peaceful.
I’ve found that this is a tricky record, but once you give a few spins it really starts to grow on you. You’ll notice a lot more of the riffs and really start to feel the darkened mood that Pär has created. Definitely worth seeking out, especially if you like the idea of doom & black metal with ambient parts.
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