(N)Utopia

Graveworm's newest CD (N)Utopia is like a fresh breath of air to most Melodic Death / Black Metal fans. This very refreshing, well put together, and quite atmospheric album is very attractive to the ears. The whole sense of emotion, feeling, and atmosphere on this album puts the listener in a state of imagination or day dreaming time to time.

Opening with the song I - Machine, sadly the listener (or at least myself) won't be too excited to hear the rest of the CD, seeing as how the first track of most albums is typically a really good song to get things going, however in Graveworm's case, it's one of the most mediocre on the album. Moving down the track-list to songs like the self-titled track (N)Utopia, Hateful Design, Never Enough, Timeless, and Which Way the album just starts to get better and better reaching it's climax where it slowly declines to the mediocre / good level.

The vocal work in Graveworm is some of my favorite to date. Two alternating vocalists that range from a black metal-esq style vocal to a death metal-esq like vocal style. The perfect mix to match the atmosphere on this CD.

Throughout the whole review, you have heard nothing but me say how much atmosphere this album has, well what makes the atmosphere so great is the contrast between the keyboards and the guitar work. Thought neither is spectacular by any means, both work so well together and provide such a good, refreshing sound that enlightened the metal world of 2005 for myself.

Overall this CD is really good, with about 5 really good stand out songs, the rest ranging mediocre to good.

8.8 / 10

Songs to look for :
(N)Utopia
Hateful Design
Never Enough
Timeless
Which Way