THE ANGEL AND THE DARK RIVER

MDB's third album has always been a major disappointment for me. It has none of the excitement or the inspiration of the preceding albums. Aaron has completely given up on the gruff singing and in case of MDB this is sure no improvement as his clean singing style is rather weak, especially when applied all the way through.

Pedestrian Black Sabbath riffs and Aaron's morose talking voice dominate the songs. They create an album that sound tedious rather then gloomy. Nothing seems to raise above average and it fails on all counts. The music isn't sophisticated nor good enough to work as an atmospheric mood-rock album, and it isn't heavy and intense enough to move the listenener, neither emotionally, nor physically. Only Your Shameful Heaven tries to create a bit of tension but the tedious vocals make it fails miserably.

The Angel And The Dark River sounds dull, as if the album was created from leftovers that didn't make it onto the preceding albums. Strangely enough the album is rated quite highly on AMG, and on PA as well so far. So probably it works well for fans of doom and stoner. But as you might have come to understand already, I'm not a fan of any particular genre or band, I'm only a fan of good albums. And this sure isn't one from what I can hear.