Sindustries

Sindustries was the last album of Gardenian but also the album that marked the difference between the old Gardenian style and a new version of melodic death metal. Often has been criticized how some Melodic Death Metal bands have chosen to make their music more catchy, and this is not an exception, just as In Flames, Gardenian made their music more melodic and suitable for a less extreme audience by experimenting with some alternative sounds and plenty of catchy lyrics. As a matter of fact, In Flames and Gardenian had plenty of similitude in their careers, both bands started as a melodic version of death metal just as in the Gothenburg way, but eventually both bands became more melodic and trendy. Therefore, Sindustries is an album that won’t fit to an average death metal listener, but to the ones that often enjoy melodic metal and the “extreme melodic version” of Death Metal.

In comparison to Gardenian’s first albums, it is noticeable that Jim Kjell got to improve his voice, while he was used to the plain death metal growls of earlier albums, in Sindustries he also shows some high toned screams and clean singing as well, but unfortunately his lyrics are not always good, especially in the song “Sonic Death Monkey”. In the other hand, other songs show a depressed and more serious side of Gardenian, specifically in the songs “Heartless” and “Funeral”, which have beautiful acoustic guitar riffs and could be considered (by some) as Metal ballads.

The guitar work is quite melodic and they use plenty of alternative guitar effects, such as Wah, therefore some people don’t even recognize it as melodic death.. “Courageous” is a song that shows these alternative influences quite clearly, and it may be a good song to rock but not a common melodic death choice. Despite all that, I think that this album was the best work of the band, for showing maturity, innovation, and it was an interesting switch from their old style, as I said before, it may not be the ideal album to an average Deathmetalhead, but Melodic Death Metal listeners could love this album. “Scissorfight”, by example, is a very powerful song (perhaps the best one of the album), it starts with Jim Kjells screams of pain, followed by a low tone growled verse and the catchy chorus with clean singing. Other songs such as “Sonic Death Monkey” have powerful vocals and guitar riffs, also mixed with catchy and clean melodic singing but without losing the blast of the music. This is the last work of Gardenian, a very good band that never got the recognition they deserved.