Back in my early reviewing days, I was all over ‘beauty and the beast’ metal; gloomy goth/doom death metal mixing death metal vocals and angelic female vocals. The likes of Thalarion, The Gathering, Lacuna Coil, To Elysium, Tragodia, Beseech, Draconian, Seventh Moon, The Provenance, Alas and such were my jams. A couple of bands recently have given it a solid go like Dysrider and Myraeth, but I’m not as enamored with the style as I was in my relative youth.

But here comes Denmark’s End My Sorrow, who have been plugging away for 20 years or so, but finally have got around to releasing a debut album to really deliver and enjoyable album of the beauty and the beast style, but with their own smoky, catchy groovy hues , to make for a enthralling album that really took me by surprise.

At it roots its a doom/goth album. Front and center are the vocals of Anne-Mette Nielsen, who has a sultry, smooth voice not unlike Anneke van Giersbergen. It’s delicate and angelic but not in a soprano or operatic way, she has a confident, warm presence like a mother crooning a rollicking lullaby. She is countered by guitarist Christian Jensen, who has the standard deep Finnish doom/death growl used by the likes of Insomium, Wolfheart, early Amorphis Shape of Despair, Barren Earth etc. She is the primary singer, but they play of each other frequently either together or taking turns.

But the vocals are nothing without some kickass music, and this us where End My Sorrow really delivered. While there is plenty of Napalm-y, typical female fronted moments like moments like “Show Burning Red”, “War of the Blind”  and “The Hidden Truth” or more straight up doom/death like “Shapes of Darkness” and “Flaming Heart”, there is a real upbeat, catchy 70s rock ‘n’ rock vibe where they sound like a lot like some of the recent female fronted vest metal that blew up over the last couple of years, but with a heavier, Finnish doom/death gloss.

The big, robust guitars and chunky rhythm section  help tracks like  “Wither Away”,”Past Horizons” (which starts like a Paradise Lost number) and personal favorite “From a Distance” are just downright rollicking numbers which will get your head banging.  There is the requisite, somber ballad in “Because of You” , but it’s elegantly heavy and a real heart string puller. “Dead End” ends the album big seven minute number delivering a little of everything and putting and end note on an album that really entertained me and has me hoping its not another 20 years until the next release.

 

 

[Visit the band's website]

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