DESERTED SOUL

"Deserted Soul" is the debut full-length studio album by Norwegian death metal act In Grief. The album was released through Bombworks Records in April 2009.

The music on the album is semi-progressive and melodic death metal with keyboards. Although In Grief are Norwegian they sound very Finnish to me because it's acts like Amorphis and Swallow the Sun that I'm reminded of when listening to "Deserted Soul". The music is slow, doomy, epic and melodic with deep growling vocals and occasional clean vocals (which remind me of the clean vocals featured on some of Enslaved's music). While the keyboards play an important role in the music I wouldn't call them dominant. They are rather tastefully placed in the mix and provide the music with a majestic atmosphere.

The album features 7 tracks. The atmospheric and epic keyboard driven intro "Darkening Horizon" sets the tone from the beginning and when "I Am" starts and guitars, drums and bass are added, the overall music style is quickly revealed and there are only few surprises from then on out. All tracks except the intro are between 6 and 9 minutes long. "Deserted Soul" is well produced and maybe a bit more raw and brutal sounding than the above mentioned acts, but still in the polished end of the death metal scale. The band are skilled musicians and the songwriting is generally of high class so all in all a 3.5 star rating (70%) isn't all wrong. A very strong debut release by In Grief. They can be proud of this one.