Garden of Storms

Garden of Storms, is a very well-executed blend of progressive rock/metal and melodic death metal. It is, in fact, so well put together that it blows some of their past releases out of the water.

Garden of Storms finds a nice balance between the crushing weight of death metal, the compositional intricacies of progressive-styled approaches, and the melodic, easily digestible edge of rock music. Within said balance we see that not only are the transitions they crafted seamless, but they also feel natural and have an organic flow. Moreover, there is an epic feeling embedded tactfully into the mix, lending some additional grandeur to the tunes.

Garden of Storms is an engaging record, so much so that only about half a dozen re-listens in was it that I didn’t immediately feel the need to play it again, because it felt too short. It isn’t even a particularly short album; it clocks in at roughly fifty minutes, so it is quite generous with the volume of aural displays it presents. Variety from a stylistic and compositional standpoint does play a big role in this aspect, but much more than that I feel like the emotive dynamic between the shifts in style and the way they play off each other really cements and amplifies the album’s replay value.

I couldn’t say I liked any particular song more than the others – they are all very consistent, and this trait seems to stay intact throughout. While each track has its own identity, they all take on a slightly different meaning when viewing the record as a whole after a couple of listens. However, I do think that there are some truly outstanding high points scattered across the album that would be worth noting. Take that oh so tasty guitar progression that binds the riffs of the first verse in “Black Storm”, for example; it really took me by surprise, as I mainly expected more of the same riffing.

After the second part of cleanly sung bits, as we near the end of “Yields of Sand”, there is a truly massive atmosphere that is simply shiver-inducing to say the least. The guitar solo in “Hierophant” may indeed be small, but it packs a similar punch in terms of atmosphere and size. “The Lost Outpost” holds easily one of the grandest moments I’ve heard in metal all year. Closing in on the the seven minute mark, there’s a bit that simply shatters any words that even so much as attempt to hold it. This extends with elegance to the song’s ending, closing the album adroitly.

The metal parts are properly heavy, groovy, and pounding; the rock parts are sweet, melodic, and soothing; the progressive webs cleverly interwoven everywhere spice things up with vivid colors and deep shades. All this suggests that Garden of Storms might just be In Mourning‘s best album to date – it is definitely one of the best metal albums to have come out this year. It boasts everything you could want from such a record: it is cohesive and consistent, and has a scintillating contrast carved into its every moment, not to mention the engaging songwriting and great overall performance. Don’t sleep on this!

originally published at: https://everythingisnoise.net/reviews/in-mourning-garden-of-storms/

These days, In Mourning have rather outgrown their name, having left their gothic metal past some way behind. The new pastures of progressive death metal are proving fertile, however, and Garden of Storms continues the trend of the quintet to produce top quality efforts in the Opeth mould. A new rhythm section has entered the picture since Afterglow, both of whom seem well-integrated as they battle their way through 7 complex songs that total up to 50 minutes of multi-hued creativity.

As usual in this field of metal, texture and variety equals riffing and hooks in importance. Keeping this in mind will lead to greater acceptance of softer parts, such as the mellow drift as ‘Magenta Ritual’ opens, as well as the gorgeous soaring clean vocal that ushers in complex yet familiar themes from Opeth’s Still Life heyday. All of the tracks have their own specific identity, heaviness predominating at most times, while proggy riffing and structures keep the listener guessing and allow the band to veer from choppy chord-based riffing to enormous Insomnium rushes of sweeping guitars to melancholic tranquillity within about a minute on ‘Huntress Moon’. Due to a sumptuous production, everything hangs together admirably, while the best surprise surely comes in ‘Hierophant’: the band finish jamming out a tangle of riffing, pause briefly, and then one of the most ecstatic solos of the album piles in.

The real question that comes whenever we get an album like Garden of Storms, however, is whether it’s relevant, considering that Opeth made this target and peppered it with shots until farming out in a prog rock direction, then groups like Be’lakor and Barren Earth moved in to capitalize on the vacant position. With a pinch of Scandinavian melancholy and more consistently up-tempo riffing than any of their compatriot Swedes’ albums, In Mourning offer a handy alternative to those atmospheric groups without losing the depth of the experience, yet the key factor remains the compelling quality of the music - the songs on Garden of Storms speak louder than any critic would dare to mention redundancy.


Originally written for Metalegion #6 - www.metalegion.com

There is little sense in starting from the beginning of a story if the road to greatness was paved with such a scattering of diabolic shards as it were for the first decade of Falun, Sweden based progressive extreme metal band In Mourning. Eight years of demoing as a typical gothic melodic metal band would eventually give way to a progressive death influenced debut (‘Shrouded Divine’, 2008) and an awkwardly faceless follow-up (‘Monolith’, 2010). Like many others I’d entirely passed on the project at this point with some misdirected distaste for vocalist/guitarist Tobias Netzell lead vocalist presence in the awkward reformation of October Tide that same year. All tilting mediocrity would right the ship towards notability with ‘The Weight of Oceans’ (2012), a progressive melodic death metal record that’d brought along some of the lessons learned on ‘A Thin Shell’ whilst incorporating the progressive metal weight of then-peaking Insomnium. It was not my personal favorite moment in their discography but surely the breakthrough where In Mourning appeared to be a worthy and somewhat earnest endeavor. As I said, this beginning to the story isn’t all that exciting a ‘first act’ beyond the triumph of a pretty good record after twelve years of soul-searching. What comes next is what is arguably remarkable, if only for the adaptive nature of the project along these past seven years of growth; This ‘second act’ of In Mourning‘s story is one of deeply considered movements that blossom at an exacting and beauteous moment, a rare but appreciable event for fans of modern progressive melodic death metal.

‘Garden of Storms’ is a loosening, a leavening, an aeration of In Mourning, who’d just freshly broken from their shell within the four years they’d taken to release ‘Afterglow’ (2016). That claustrophobic and stranded melodramatic sandstorm now at least touches shoulders with contemporaries October Tide, Insomnium, and Be’lakor whilst pushing forth a deeper atmospheric ether alongside some heavier, and now appreciably aggressive, progressive music. The flower blossoming as a description of the leading fanfare on ‘Garden of Storms’ might appear trite but, “Black Storms” (the original title of the album) opens up towards a much deeper magenta-tinged celestial hug than anything the band had attempted previous; Relax as comfortably as you can, though, that’ll be is about as wide open as the space between gets. The bulk of this record is undoubtedly pensive, tensile, and finessed progressive metal served through a melodic death, gothic doom, and dark metal tinged vehicle. The established fan will understand this musical language but likely not at all expect such an appreciable handling of modern Scandinavian progressive metal ideals in addition to the olden-refined melodic standards of say, Omnium Gatherum or Amorphis. No, this isn’t exactly a fidgety Witherscape album but a Leprous or Soen fan might find some peripheral interest therein.

A new rhythm section, a more inclusive approach to songwriting, a more relaxed production experience, and some new voices serve to complete the trilogy started back in 2012 and to be sure ‘Garden of Storms’ is related to, but undoubtedly superior to its first two thirds. The ambitious fable is completed with a similar voice and unto a satisfying end though I’d venture few listeners dig into the lyrics of In Mourning‘s records as much as the feeling and intricacies of their guitar work. It surely isn’t a standard form of modern progressive melodic death metal, leaning heavily towards a progressive permutation influenced by atmospheric rock/metal hybrids, but none of this stretches too far from the greater voice of the project. What freshly compelling detail I’d point towards is at first a very peripheral engagement– The extra layering of synth, guitar effects and generally spacious additions make this one of the more detailed and varied records in this style in recent memory. On that same note the soft and space-faring movements of the record wouldn’t work if the heavier parts weren’t compelling, aggressive, and creative beyond the legions of tiredly bonking djent attuned prog-metal bands that surround In Mourning in Sweden. The full listen is a cut above, and should at least please the death metal fan who’d bend as far as to enjoy modern records from any band I’d previously mentioned in my analysis.

You’d think I’d been mooning over this album for weeks on end, wrapped in its oozing throes and souring within its somewhat gloomily aggressive movements but there is a small missing piece in the connection between the ear, brain and heart connection. At no point do I particularly ‘feel’ the very soul of this album gripping me so much as its intention to complete a story in several complex parts. A story can easily tangle the strings of emotion into a glorious knot but prose is a more effortless vehicle for the particularly attuned. In short, I was thrilled that there were melodic death/doom undercurrents throughout this album and their correlation with tighter progressive death rhythms is a great strength of In Mourning‘s but the deeper personal connection never sunk into me enough to send the listening experience to the point of craving. A personal exercise in expectations versus meeting the artists on their own terms aside, ‘Garden of Storms’ is an effective full listen that is highly repeatable on the level of ‘New World Shadows’ era Omnium Gatherum, an intermittent favorite of mine that is at least somewhat nearby in a similar melodic/progressive paradigm. It is hard to tell when I’ve listened to a melodic and hook-filled record enough to gauge it with a balanced mind yet I can say that with a full month of listens under my belt ‘Garden of Storms’ has radiated with professional, endearing and repeatable value since that first listen in early September. Moderately high recommendation. For preview purposes I’d suggest starting with two of the harder songs “Huntress Moon” and “Black Storm” and then juxtaposing that tonality with the more patient-yet-redeeming single “Yields of Sand”.

Attribution: https://grizzlybutts.com/2019/10/04/in-mourning-garden-of-storms-2019-review/

A violent suspense above, Garden of Storms closes out an oceanic trilogy; the final chapter of In Mourning’s seven year long vow to conquer the ocean. Started in 2012 with The Weight of Oceans and expanded with Afterglow in 2016, the concept has made colossi of the Falun quintet; if not in terms of fame or recognition, then definitely in soundscape and magnitude of vision.

Perhaps the most notable change since the last album is the “loss” of bassist and lyricist Pierre Stam who left the band along with drummer Daniel Liljekvist to form Mercury Rust; giving the album a distinct change in its vivid poetic lyrics in comparison to its predecessors. It is by no means worse - Garden of Storms feature some of the band's most poetic pieces yet - but it is different, and definitely a successor worth the name.

The melodic guitars have always been, and continue to be one of the strongest features of In Mourning’s repertoire. Tim Nedergård and Björn Petterson always painting vivid in sound the image projected by the scope of the vision. Be it the epic melodic doom aspects found in Yields of Sand and The Lost Outpost, or the faster soloing found in Hierophant, everything feels tight, cohesive and added with purpose rather than just gloating. It’s all connected to the whole and it’s deep, melodic, touching and brutally unfeeling all at the same time. Newly recruited bassist Sebastian Svalland, filling in for Stam, adds the much needed depth and emotive punch to the lower end of the spectrum, with highlights in the bellowing Magenta Ritual and the closing The Lost Outpost.

Tobias Netzell continues in full to deliver monstrous growls from the depth of a monolithic earth and blending them perfectly with heartfelt and atmospheric cleans. Magenta Ritual and Yields of Sand both see him shifting flawlessly between the styles as the music turns from chilling balladry and behemoth like death grooves, ever with the melodic guitars burning like a guiding star.

Right out, Garden of Storms doesn’t quite reach the individual peaks that made The Weight of Oceans stand out. The sound also doesn’t carry the bleak, fiery sound storm that permeated Afterglow, but it is perhaps the most complete album of the three, and a definite tour de force in progressive setting with a heavier atmosphere than ever looming over darkened oceans. Musically it follow the same pattern of melodic atmosphere over heavy death metal groove, but taking new twists here and there to make the album feel similar to its predecessors while still taking new directions in the stylistics.

Less dark, ominous and brooding, its sound is more open and approachable, while the musicianship feels tighter than ever, and there’s a clear direction to be heard throughout while also flawlessly weaving in subtle musical references to the earlier works, like how The Lost Outpost closes in the same dark vein that Colossus opened. A work of passion, Garden of Storms is in time likely to stand as the crowning piece that In Mourning brings to monstrous, passionate life, adrift with the tide.

Standout tracks: Yields of Sand, Huntress Moon, The Lost Outpost