Siberian – Modern age mausoleum
When you receive something to review from Swedish label Gaphals you don’t what to expect, other than what you’re about to listen to is Swedish. The label releases basically everything, ranging from pop to raging hardcore to doom metal. I don’t know if the lads at Gaphals have a checklist of styles they released so far, but if they do, they can now check the sludge box as Siberian is firmly rooted in that scene.
This isn’t Siberians first release. Under the name Shrine the band released an EP. The name of the band changed to avoid problems with other bands going by the name Shrine (with one simple search I managed to find four other Shrines, so this you might say this is a wise choice). On Modern age mausoleum you can hear the band has some experience under their belts. I would like to urge them to gain some more experience before recording a new album though as Siberian brings absolutely nothing new to this already crowded scene. The moment I pushed play I thought: “hey, this sounds like Kruger”. Kruger is not a band that is not known for it’s originality as it is heavily influenced by early Mastodon. Where Kruger gets the benefit of the doubt for their relentless energy I notice my thoughts drift away after a couple of songs by Siberian. The 40 minutes long 9 track album is a bit too long.
Where the music reminds me a lot of Kruger the singer reminds me of someone completely different. As soon as he opened his mouth I thought: “is that Derrick Green (the singer of Sepultura)?”. It’s not, but it gives you a clue of what to expect: thrashy vocals from a singer that can sing hardcore as well.
In the end the band does nothing wrong, but the lack of originality makes this release not stand out and a bit redundant. If the band can fix this problem they should be able to create their own niche. Until then Siberian is for those folks that have to listen to every single sludge album ever made.
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