GODSEND

Godsend started as a band somewhere between funeral doom and doom metal before Godsend became a band on their second album. On this album, their third, the band got sacked and Godsend returned back to a mix of funeral doom and doom metal. Well, more funeral doom in fact. The tempo is slow and the guitars is downtuned down to pure sludge. The vocals too is downtuned to almost monk chants.

This is not an easy-listening album. But the overall quality shines through and I find this album guilty of being a good album. It is recommended to all those of you (yeah, you in the back of the room) who likes dark doom metal.

3 stars

As mentioned, the music here is a weird hybrid of doom metal, goth rock, progressive rock, traditional heavy metal, and occasionally pop. All of these five genres aren't often present in the same song, but there are often doom metal songs in the vein of My Dying Bride or Anathema followed by a proggy heavy metal song. Although this sounds incoherent on paper (and it occasionally is), Godsend pulls off this unique sound very well. This sounds a bit like Swanö's Nightingale project, but A Wayfarer's Tears is much more raw, doomy, and occasionally heavier. All in all, if you're into doom metal and have eclectic tastes in music, this album should appeal to you.

A Wayfarer's Tears is a 12-track, 56:38 long album. Saying this album has 12 songs is a bit inaccurate due to the fact that 5 of the songs form a 20+ minute suite, A Wayfarer's Tears. This epic tour de force is surely the highlight of the album for me. This is a doomy, proggy, and emotional rollercoaster well-worth taking. The rest of the album isn't ever quite as good as the epic, but none of it's bad. However, as expected with a nearly hour-long album, there is some filler. Most of it's towards the end, as the album takes a huge dive in quality after the Wayfarer suite. It starts to drag on and lose its intensity and power after about 35-40 minutes. Not too many bands can make a perfect, filler-free album that's over 40 minutes, and Godsend isn't one of the exceptions. The weakest song in my opinion is the 10:40 Starfall. Doom metal fans may get a kick out of Dan Swanö's low, almost inhuman, funeral doom-styled vocals here, but for me it's just boring and pointless. I'm sure it's an acquired taste, though. The rest of the songs are of at least decent quality.

The musicians are good on A Wayfarer's Tears, but judging by the lineup history, it could have been better. Dan Swanö's vocals are fantastic; it seems as though they were meant for this type of doom metal/goth rock. This has Benny Larsson (Edge of Sanity, Pan.Thy.Monium, Total Terror) on drums, so of course his playing is great as always. This has Erik Oskarsson of Nightingale on bass, and he does a pretty solid job as well. The two guitarists are generally pretty good, but they are occasionally on the sloppier side. Even though each of the musicians is individually pretty great, when they come together they aren't exactly a tight playing unit. It comes across as a bit amateurish despite the fact that these are very accomplished musicians.

The production is one of the major faults here. I just don't like this primitive and raw doom metal sound, and even though it gets the job done, its too lo-fi for my liking. It's an acquired taste, though, and old school doom metal fans will disagree with me here.

Conclusion:

A Wayfarer's Tears is a very good album by Godsend, and recommended to any fan of Dan Swanö, doom metal, or just anyone looking for an unusually eclectic metal album. I have to say this isn't the type of music that excites me very much, even though it is a high quality album. I will give this a 2.5-3 star rating for an album that will only really please a limited audience. If the entire album were as great as the title-suite, I surely would have given a higher score.

Slaydream was a strong track from As The Shadow Falls. It gets a slightly heavier treat here but it's no improvement as it lost much of its groove and vintage doom charm. Silence of Time is a slowly plodding doom beast, not bad but not very original nor memorable. Delusions of Grandure, Sermon and Galactic Galleon are all upbeat doom-rockers that wouldn't sound much out of place on a Dio-fronted Black Sabbath album.

But with Eidolon the album takes an entirely different turn. Away from pure doom, it comes close to the Gothic rock of the first two Nightingale albums. At least where it concerns atmosphere, the music is slightly more Doom then Goth, but only purists will care about that. It features proggy keyboards at the end and almost serves as an intro for the progressive focal point of the album, a 5-part song suite with clean guitar picking, melodious vocals, symphonic keyboards and lots of doom power. It kind of sounds like Sisters of Mercy caught in the middle of a proggy identity crisis leading into a particularly nasty depression.

The closing murky doom plod of Silence of Time can't shed any further light on this schizophrenic album. I rather like some parts of it but it's not that good really. 2.5 stars

I remember the release well because I worked in the biggest magazine in Norway at that time. Godsend, ie Gunder Audun Dragsten, was my first ever band I reviewed and interviewed. It was also a pretty bizarre experience when I called Gunder at his home to arrange the interview. I got his mother, presented myself with my name and the name of the magazine I worked for. His mother then proceeded to give me a solid ear-bashing because I called from a rock magazine. Obviously, Gunder's choice of hobby (music) had not fallen on fertile grounds at home. I was told that her son Gunder was too good for this piece of s**** called rock and he was a very decent young man with a big future ahead of himself. With my ears still bleeding from her words, I eventually got hold of Gunder. A very nice, humble man. I also had a look at his tax returns (which are public in Norway). I think it is safe to say that his mother was spot on after all, judging on Gunder's pretty solid income last year.

Sorry, I am still laughing at the ear-bashing I got from his mother, almost two decades later. And I have not a bad word to say about her or Gunder at all.

Anyway, while I am trying to recover from this fit of laughter, I am supposed to review this album. Gosh !!!

Godsend was and is Gunder Audun Dragsten's band. No less, no more. This album is a natural progression from the 1992 demo. Dan Swano does the vocals as a hired hand. The music is dominated by almost Gregorian chants from Dan Swano. Gunder does all the guitars and the bass here. The guitars are very doomy, the funeral doom way of doom. Again, the similarity with Cathedral (UK) is very obvious. In particular their first album. But there is also some elements of Solitude Aeturnus, Candlemass and Black Sabbath here. This album also have a pretty straight rock tune. This gives this album a pretty progressive feel and Godsend a more multi-dimensional expression. I am no longer a fan of this type of doom. But I have a soft spot for this album. A week three stars will suffice.

3 stars

One of the more obscure bands he worked with was Godsend, for which he did the vocals on two albums. This Godsend project never reached a level of brilliance for me, but in combining melodic doom, goth and progressive elements, the band was quite a unique star in the northern sky and their debut album is very strong all the way through. The album is also noteworthy for me as it was the first album where Swanö used his clean vocals all the way through. They are not as confident yet as on the Nightingale debut, he often opts for a very deep bass register that is quite impressive and eerie but that lacks the more natural warmth he later developed. But it suits the music fine.

Depending on the individual track, the album often sounds like Pentagram (Slaydream, With The Wind) or Candlemass (Autumn Leaves). At other times, as on the slow funeral doom trudge of the title track, it's like early Anathema with clean vocals. Then again, a more prog-oriented influence of Solitude Aeturnus shines through and there's even some prog-folk on Walking The Roads where Swanö's love for Marillion clearly shows, this short tune is almost as charming and cheerful as Childhood's End / White Feather.

You got it, this is a must for fans of the melodic doom of Candlemass, Paradise Lost, Solitude Aeturnus, Pentagram and all the others. It never reaches the top level of those bands but it often comes close. Swanö's vocals more then make up for its shortcomings. 4 metal stars, 3.5 prog stars so I'll leave it at 3.

This demo though is very similar to the debut album of Cathedral. That's the doom metal band with the same name. Not the neo-prog or the classic US band from the 1970s. Godsend's demo is also similar to the stuff Funeral did at that time. This demo is essentially a funeral doom demo. A form om metal which is pretty popular these days. Those who likes funeral doom; check out this demo. For the rest of you; vacuum-clean your bedroom. The atonal vocals here and the bass driven melodies is pretty one-dimensional and dull. Progressive ? Not more than my cat is a lion scaring the life of the zebras in the Serengeti savanna. This is funeral doom and my cat is a docile creature. The quality is OK, but nothing more. It is too much of a Cathedral copy though so I am not going to give it more than two stars. Thankfully; Godsend did a sharp 90 degrees turn after this demo and went for better pastures.

2 stars