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Akelei - De Zwaarte Van Het Doorstane review




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Reviewer:
8.9

50 users:
8.44
Band: Akelei
Album: De Zwaarte Van Het Doorstane
Release date: November 2010


01. Verlangen
02. Meer Dan Je Ziet
03. De Zwaarte
04. Een Droom In 6/8
05. Duett

For doom elitists, Akelei needs no introduction. They are beyond doubt, along with Procession, two of the finest legions that the doom army has at its disposal. With their first offering De Zwaarte Van Het Doorstane (which roughly means The Burden of the Weathered) the North-Brabant-based Dutch quartet have utterly scorched the last hope for mankind to avoid the sorrowful dirges of despair.

Sweepingly swerving from the orthodox garrulous rough-hewn sadness-delving tumult that swamped practically all the antediluvian doom metal territories during the Reverend Bizarre and Warning era, De Zwaarte Van Het Doorstane saunters instead around demulcent atmospheric convalescent coronachs, cremating the first two verses of the doom gospel? You don't need oracles like Miskatonic Foundation or Spikefarm to make doom-ish river-parching music nor a Robert Lowe clone to tangle your brain to knots with brilliant clean hollow vocals. Akelei, with this self-released album (which by the way was recorded at the ninth Dutch Doom Days festival), and Misha Nuis with modest vocal capabilities and a blushing narrow history, have blessed the world with one of the absolute doom top albums of 2010. Quite impressive for an unsigned band, isn't it?

Akelei's music wanders somewhere between Forlorn's staggering slow-fibered tempos and loud-distorted guitar ramblings ("Verlangen") and Isole's keyboard-less passages ("Een Droom In 6/8"), with dazzling shades of Svart's atmospheric post-rock-driven patterns ("Meer Dan Je Ziet"), all thrust together in a hybrid vortex of relentless heaviness ("De Zwaarte"), with, at the end, a delicate female touch by Skumring's Cecilie Langlie's ethereal vocals("Duett"). It's doom, but it's not depressive, which is always a good thing in my book.

Let me make it short and simple, this album is for everybody, really. You don't have to be into doom to enjoy it; it has a little bit of everything and is accessible on the first listen.

Well done Akelei! 8.9 from me.

Written by Mindheist | 24.03.2011




Guest review disclaimer:
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.


Comments

Comments: 7   Visited by: 95 users
25.03.2011 - 15:22
Rating: 10
BudDa

I LOVE this album to bits. This for me was just a perfect album. So much sorrow, so much despair, so much pain which was channeled fantastically from the singer to the listener(me). It was my biggest surprise of 2010 and one of my best from last year. I don't speak a word in Dutch but this was the most played record in my player.
Nice review Altair
----
Freeze! Step away from the hubris.
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25.03.2011 - 15:50
Marcel Hubregtse
Grumpy Old Fuck
@Altair, the album was not recorded at Dutch Doom Days IX. That gig was the cd release party/gig
it was recorded Utrecht where Misha lives.
----
Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal

Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight
Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.)
05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996

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25.03.2011 - 18:57
Mindheist
No Longer Human
@BudDa, thanks man, I really appreciate it .

@Marcel, Sorry I must have misinterpreted what Misha said. I apologize for that, and I'll try to be more meticulous next time .
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25.03.2011 - 20:10
Marcel Hubregtse
Grumpy Old Fuck
Written by Mindheist on 25.03.2011 at 18:57

@BudDa, thanks man, I really appreciate it .

@Marcel, Sorry I must have misinterpreted what Misha said. I apologize for that, and I'll try to be more meticulous next time .


No problem. Just wanted to point it out. Especially since I love the band and have been following them ever since their first gig (which was at Dutch Doom Days 2007). pascal (guitar) and ward (drums) are also part of Faal (new album due this year).
I must have seen them live at least around 10 times by now
So, you are in contact with Misha?
----
Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal

Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight
Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.)
05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996

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25.03.2011 - 20:50
Mindheist
No Longer Human
Haha, I wish I were, but I'm not. I read a couple of interviews of Misha talking about how great Akelei's experience was at Dutch Doom Days IX and I clearly have inaccurately interpreted his words.

Thanks for the good news by the way, I didn't know they had entered the studio . Hope it'll be as great as "De Zwaarte Van Het Doorstane".
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26.03.2011 - 20:37
Rating: 8
Troy Killjoy
perfunctionist
Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 25.03.2011 at 20:10

...pascal (guitar) and ward (drums) are also part of Faal (new album due this year).

Awesome news! Hadn't heard of that until just now.
----
"Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something."
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26.03.2011 - 22:03
Marcel Hubregtse
Grumpy Old Fuck
Written by Troy Killjoy on 26.03.2011 at 20:37

Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 25.03.2011 at 20:10

...pascal (guitar) and ward (drums) are also part of Faal (new album due this year).

Awesome news! Hadn't heard of that until just now.



I already heard 45 minutes of NEW songs when they opened for Offixium Triste and October Tide halfway through last January and the songs sounded GREAT.
----
Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal

Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight
Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.)
05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996

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