Greece is no stranger to amazing extreme metal with bands such as SepticFlesh, Varathron, Rotting Christ and Necromantia. Well today we bring you another one to add to the list. Horrorgraphy is a symphonic doom metal band who recently released their debut full length this year on Satanath Records. The band has a unique lineup structure as it is one person doing all instruments and three vocalists including a female soprano singer. Each song is a change as it can have melodies that bounce around from a gothic metal sound then go into a doom death style riff. The best part of this album is the almost 90s gothic doom metal vibe similar to that of The Sins of Thy Beloved and Tristania.
The vocals feature the beauty and beast trade offs which is not anything new but Marialena Trikoglou’s singing raises the bar on this album. The vocals by both Pain and Seek do compliment her singing as stated before, reminiscent of The Sins of Thy Beloved. The track Ghosts has a similar style to that of Trail of Tears track “A Fate Sealed In Red” without sounding like a copy. Trikoglou’s singing on this track is very haunting as she hits notes that compliment the guitar work on here. This album does have the doom metal aesthetic to it but also does a great job of adding other elements to the sound which is a big plus. The track “Hauted” also has a unique flare as it starts sounding almost like a circus but picks up and becomes surprisingly heavy.
Now myself being a big fan of The Sins of Thy Beloved and old Tristania, this album did an amazing job of keeping the symphonic doom sound alive but have a listen yourselves, you will be pleasantly surprised. If you are fans of The Sins of Thy Beloved, Tristania, Darkwell and even Nighwish, then grab this album! I highly recommend this release as being one of the most unique and captivating releases so far this year.
Overall Score: 9.0/10
Review by Neil Andersen
