Chilean Gothic Doom Metal. This is the simplest, most concise description of Mar De Grises’ (Sea Of Gray) music. All the requisite elements are present to warrant this description as well. Within the 64 minute release, we find plenty of slow tempos, sad, depressing melodies, Death Metal vocals & an overall darkly romantic vibe.
Now, depending on your taste this is the kind of album that will either bore one to tears or drive them there with its passion & conviction. Some purveyors of the genre will love this album for its pure rendition of the style, others will hate it for being more of the same when they crave something new. I’ll say that if you are one of the latter then you’d best be on your way. Draining The Waterheart stays true to its chosen genre and does a fine job and flying said flag. 2 of the 8 tracks here are sung in Spanish which, with these vocals, is nearly impossible to decipher let alone recognize. But, follow along with the lyric sheet and improve your bilingual skills. There are plenty of free online translators to help. The English lyrics are the usual poetic fare and fit the vibe of the music nicely.
Some bands seek to innovate while some bands just want to make the best music they can in the genre of their choosing. Mar De Grises plays good, strong, heavy music and fans of the style will find more to love inside this band’s dark embrace. Fans of Shape Of Despair, Draconian, My Dying Bride & the like take note.
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I had heard so much about these guys, but ended up being pretty disappointed -nothing here stuck with me or moved me.
on Apr 22nd, 2008 at 09:07I’m surprised to see this described as unoriginal. Their last one had a progressive vibe running through that gave it a unique edge. Maybe they toned that down on this one? Well, either way, I’ll probably like it because I just love gothic doom when it’s done well.
on Apr 22nd, 2008 at 17:48well from the review im so picking this up. they seem rad and there cover art is the shizz. foreal
on Apr 24th, 2008 at 20:34I would recommend this album to anyone into melodic doom death of Finnish school albeit these guys are from Chile. Very cool stuff indeed.
on Nov 27th, 2008 at 11:45