ALBUM REVIEW: Riven – Shadecrown

Finland’s SHADECROWN are one of the best up and coming death doom acts in the underground scene today. Since they formed seven years ago, the band have slowly but surely crafted their own sound and style, culminating with their debut full length, 2016’s Agonia, an album that gained them some well deserved wider attention. While that debut record was a great album, it was clear that the band hadn’t quite reached their apex and fully shaped their own distinct sound. Their latest record, Riven, is a step in the right direction in that regard, with the band tentatively beginning to develop and perfect a sound that is more their own, making for an interesting and diverse record.

Not Until the End starts with some haunting keyboards, which set a sublime, yet slightly melancholic tone. The guitars, drums and bass quickly join these keyboards, matching their epic tone, making for a monolithic, yet fierce sound, that is complemented by the dense, tar thick gutturals that come into play as the song progresses. The powerful sound of the majority of the music, coupled with the atmospheric keyboards, help give this song a robust sound with some great melodic elements peppered throughout to break up the intensity of the song, proving to be an excellent opening effort.

Lifelong Dying utilises a far cleaner guitar sound that ties in extremely well with the keyboards, and allows for far more melody driven lead guitar hooks to come to the fore, resulting in an incredibly catchy and memorable piece of music. It’s got a much more focused, rhythmic side to its composition, which gives the music a much more aggressive and driven sound, which works well with the vocals when they finally make an appearance. With grandiose motifs underpinning everything, it’s another track that combines ferocious death doom with some glorious keys. Rain’s Edge proves to be a far more groove-laden affair, with a confident swagger, courtesy of the guitars, giving this song a great, beefy sound that counterpoints the soaring ambience of the keyboards perfectly. The guitars and vocals in particular sound monstrous at points, with slick leads and reverb drenched acoustic guitars providing plenty of fantastic riffs to the proceedings, keeping the song interesting from the first note to the last.

The Ghost I Mourn is another fierce and focused slab of death doom which balances the more vicious moments with tight, polished lead guitars which make this song an incredibly emotive and varied track, with even the normally bellicose vocals allowing some cleaner, more accessible passages to creep into the mix. It’s a much punchier and catchier track than the three that came before it, and it proves to be an early highlight on the record.

Incomplete, one of the albums lengthier songs, strips away much of the aggression and visceral energy that defined this albums first half, in favour of a more ethereal edge, that makes for a morose and glorious piece of music with a great, almost shoegaze feel to its style and sound. The guitars are far more airy and have a lighter sound, with much of the death and doom metal elements taking a back seat and replaced with steady drums, sonorous vocals and more reserved guitars, with only a few brief guttural sections anchoring the song to the rest of the record. It’s a great change of pace that also serves as a pallet cleanser which doesn’t need to rely on the heady sound that defined the first four tracks.

Hate Reflected manages to strike a great balance between the crushing metal elements in SHADECROWN‘s sound and the more bombastic, keyboard and acoustic guitar driven sections, creating a brilliant, yet relatively brief, anthem with some of the best keyboards and lead guitars on the whole record, with the rhythm section and the vocals being far more subdued to allow the excellent lead hooks to carry this song. It may be one of the albums shortest offerings, but it certainly stands as one of the best.

Divided is another long, sprawling affair, with more authoritative rhythms and slick, dancing lead guitars, which complement the more prominent and adventurous keys extremely well, with certain points towards the middle of the song bordering on prog with their musicality and depth of sound. The vocals make their presence known when they do make an appearance, carving a dense, sludgy roar through the mix and commanding the listeners attention, acting as a stark contrast to the more refined and focused nature of the music. This is a great, eclectic offering that provides a solid, climactic stamp on the album, combining a visceral feel with epic flourishes.

Traces brings this album to a close on one of the albums more impressive and imaginative efforts; starting out with acoustic guitars, it quickly building to a hair raising track that sounds monstrous, tinging the music with some subtle, but noticeable gothic flourishes, giving this a much more bleak and atmospheric feel that it’s hard not to get caught up in. It’s a shame that SHADECROWN didn’t pull this kind of material out of the bag earlier on in the record, but it does a great job of drawing the listener back in and leaving them eager to hear more when the final notes die down.

This is really an album of two halves; the first half sees the band follow a solid, death/doom formula that sounds great, and the second half begins to bring in some slight experimentation with that formula with lots of success. In particular, Incomplete, Divided and Traces really push the scope of the sound into interesting and intriguing new territories, and it’s a shame that SHADECROWN didn’t explore this sound more thoroughly on this record, because this change of pace really pays off and works incredibly well when it is made use of. With any luck, SHADECROWN will expand on this sound and style a little more on future records.

Rating: 7/10

Riven is out now via Inverse Records.

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