An Evil Shade of Grey

This album taps into an informal trend within death metal in the early 1990s that seems to have all but escaped the old school revival of recent times. I’d say it bears a strong resemblance to Amorphis’ ‘The Karelian Isthmus’, Bolt Thrower’s ‘The IVth Crusade’ and ‘…For Victory’, and Demigod’s ‘Slumber of Sullen Eyes’. What do all these albums have in common? They stripped death metal back to its most basic components, and crafted riffs from a few simple parts that gradually and patiently rebuild the art-form from the bottom up. They kept the tempo low by death metal standards, either sticking to the mid-pace or slower. Because of this the listener has all the time in the world to digest the brilliant simplicity of the riffs, often split two ways between meaty power chords and minimal guitar harmonies. And from these elements supervenes overwhelming epic death metal of the first order. Taking these well used techniques out of the speed and extremity arms race taking place in death metal at that time granted the music space to breathe once more, and to realise the timeless artistry at its core.

Because this style of death metal bleeds into doom and occasionally gothic metal it’s hardly surprising that Sweden’s Cemetary would move on from their purer death metal routes eventually. But on the debut LP, 1992’s ‘An Evil Shade of Grey’ we find them sitting pretty on a sound that is at once ugly and primal yet aspires to majesty and grace. Although the guitar tone is filthy, and predominantly put in service of chugging power chord riffs, there are frequent pauses where the chords are allowing to ring out, providing space for elegantly simple lead work, duties that are oftentimes taken up by the keyboard in unison with the guitar. Despite the performance being perfectly tight, the drums are a little flat and thin in the mix, which detracts somewhat from their impact in emphasising certain riff collisions during the more frantic passages. But they keep the album flowing from one mood to the next, never dropping the tempo or activity to true doom metal levels.

Although this is not the most technical album you’ll ever hear, there is no doubt a desire behind these compositions to work depth and nuance into this style of death metal. One that sits at neither end of the spectrum in terms of extremity or speed. Cemetary’s end goal was clearly in the direction of exploring the melodic potentials within death metal, but aesthetically speaking, they have approached this from the more primitive and ugly end of the genre. The result is an album that is at once grotesque yet beautiful with a pronounced emotional core. They have taken us beyond a straightforward ear bashing that the production seems designed for, and into realms well outside of death metal’s remit in the early 1990s.

But rather than another hammy and entitled mashing of two distinct genres, ‘An Evil Shade of Grey’ approaches melody with a more patient and cohesive backbone. To elaborate; rather than simply open with a passage of dirty death metal with that iconic early 90s guitar tone, only to pull this back into a My Dying Bride-esque funereal dirge of melancholy, here the two distinct elements are worked seamlessly together. While many of the riffs at first appear solid enough contributions to Swedish death metal it quickly becomes apparent that are simply the introduction of more sophisticated themes and motifs that take shape as the album progresses. Again I must point to ‘The Karelian Isthmus’ for a worthy comparison of an album that trades in primitivism aspiring to the epic and the profound. And doing so with very little in the way of technical trickery along the way. Whilst certainly competent musicians, the real joy of this album lies in watching them turn these relatively pedestrian building blocks into a work of colour and life that far surpasses more musically complex releases of the time.

Originally published at Hate Meditations

In a musical movement loaded with good releases, Cemetary's An Evil Shade of Grey manages to be a cut above most of the competition. Though you've probably never heard of these guys, their first full-length is just as worthy of your attention as anything else from Swedish death metal's early days. On their debut, Cemetary presents listeners with just about every aspect they could possibly want out of an early 90s Swedeath release. Here you'll find plenty of pummeling momentum, muscular riffs, spooky atmosphere, and even enough catchy segments to almost give Unleashed a run for their money. From whatever angle you're approaching the genre, this release has you covered.

As your normie parents will happily tell you, death metal songs have a way of being difficult to tell apart. Frequently it takes multiple listens to a death metal album for the songs' distinguishing characteristics to reveal themselves (and in some lesser albums, such a thing never happens). This is not one of those cases. Despite never seeming like they're trying too hard to snag your attention with hooky writing, the individual aspects of these songs become apparent before long. In this regard, the band's use of an admittedly cheap-sounding keyboard with some kind of haunted house sound effect goes a long way. Album opener ‘Red Dead’ and the title track both use the keyboard to create some ghostly (and unexpectedly enthralling) ambience. Despite the cheapness of the effect, the moments it appears in these songs (and others) are effective. The title track, while we’re on the subject, is this album’s greatest asset, with dramatic, doomy riffs building the tension beneath Mathias Lodmalm’s sepulchral growls and snarls, a grim, unforgettable keyboard melody, sublime, subtle guitar solos, and a general forlorn atmosphere that most modern death metal bands could never cultivate. Despite this number’s superiority, Cemetary’s songwriting brilliance is spread more or less evenly across all eight songs. Throughout the rest of the album, other tracks have plenty to offer as well, whether it’s the sudden bass breaks and tempo changes in ‘Where the Rivers of Madness Stream’, the scorching gallops and grooves in ‘Sidereal Passing’, or the tense, creeping lead guitar work that slips into the middle of ‘Scars’ like a ghost floating through the wall, there’s plenty here that will stick with you.

The only pervasive issue is the way the guitars come through in the production. While most aspects of the engineering are your standard Swedeath fair, problems arise during the tremolo passages, which, in most of the songs, are short but frequent. There's this godawful screeching sound that occurs whenever one of the guitarists lays into a tremolo line. The noise isn't loud but the hissing strings throw off the otherwise carefully rendered atmosphere. In all other regards, beyond an easily tolerable crumminess in the quality of the keyboard and the faux-acoustic guitars, though, the production is exactly what you'd want it to be for an album like this, with blunt, powerful guitars, basslines that tend to be just barely audible as they provide a subtle pulse, and a general griminess that augments this album’s more bludgeoning moments.

On their first full-length outing, Cemetary was every bit as heavy and punishing as most of their contemporaries. Where they truly went above and beyond was in their songwriting. An Evil Shade of Grey frequently switches from straightforward, raging death metal to surprisingly haunting atmospheric sections. Every song has something that sets it apart, allowing the album to shift easily from a unnerving character to a more aggressive one to a more groovin' one from moment to moment. Within the sphere of the original Swedish death metal scene, it doesn’t get much better than this.

Previous reviewers have got some mileage out of calling this "dark death metal", but that phrase trips itself up when I ask you which death metal band might not be described as "dark". Cemetary were another of those early/mid-'90s bands that started out as a fairly interesting death metal alternative and then gradually decomposed into vaguely gothic metal shapes that probably no one remembers now. In fact, calling this album "dark death metal" is not so much a reach if you are looking to assign the point of difference between An Evil Shade of Grey and other contemporary albums, though I'm of the opinion that you should be using descriptors like gothic and doom to explain the transfer of inspiration from Paradise Lost to these Swedes and from Cemetary to Germans Crematory the following year. What we get is a death metal album in An Evil Shade of Grey that has a lot of atmosphere.

When I call this gothic death metal, I don't mean it has tons of keyboards or female vocals, because Paradise Lost didn't have much of those things when they released Gothic in 1991. The influence stems more from the earlier literary gothic ideas of ancient edifices and eerie happenings that affect the spirit, something that the cover art of Cemetary's debut displays with a pinch of uniqueness. Sonically, the legacy of early gothic comes about from the melodic tone of the guitars (and, admittedly, a minor keyboard presence) and the eeriness of the atmospheres that the four-piece are able to conjure. Mathias Lodmalm is clearly the mastermind of the band, handling guitars and vocals, the former of which fountain creatively with acoustic segments, reverbed leads, and some ponderous melodic riffs in addition to the common deathly assaults, while his voice sounds more or less like the sickened product of Sunlight Studios in the early '90s, which was where this album was recorded.

The crucial reason why An Evil Shade of Grey is worth your attention is because it still stands out from a whole slew of Swedish death metal that was being produced during the era. The fast riffs are nearly up there with Dismember and Entombed as some of the genre's finest, though the scope of the slower passages and transitions is enlarged to become the main feature of the album. Take the rolling progress of 'Sidereal Passing' for example: the quicker riffs ambush the listener but are discarded fairly quickly, allowing for a thumping mid-paced groove to steady the ship and drummer Juha Sievers to rattle off some fills with a more staccato riff; following that, the keyboards echo up menacingly behind a bridge and the threat is carried out by a sudden faster section of vocals; another creepy period of quiet takes over, where the bass comes through strongly to cast ominous shadows on the atmosphere, then we are taken for another spin with the catchy main riff; in comes deep chord sequences very much like the British death doom bands were peddling, along with the musty lead guitar tone that Paradise Lost embedded in my cobwebbed heart on Gothic - doing nothing exceptional I must say, but tending to the mood of the song nonetheless; a few more quicker bursts reuse the earlier riffs before a tense chugging section accompanied by muted keyboards suggests a deep horror at the song's passing.

Note that at no point during that song did the progress stop, nor was the atmosphere dispelled either by the quickening or relaxing of the pace: every movement serves to develop the song and build up or release the tension like the succeeding events of a horrible story. Most of the songs have similar features, with a slight majority of slow and mid-paced material, while the faster intrusions are usually short-lived and unexpected. That makes the album a little difficult to get to grips with, though also means that the arrangements and shifts will keep the songs sounding fresh for a longer period than other releases. It is perhaps 'Nightmare Lake' that takes the gothic elements to their limit, directing the song with cleaner playing and some synthesized sounds of violin at strategic points, but these mostly serve the underlying direction of the riffs than attempt to wrest control away from the filth of the guitars. In this respect, it must be said that the production is well-balanced, even if some of the keyboard additions seem rather stark in contrast to the thick sludge of the combined strings and drums, none of which sound sharp enough even to cut through jelly. Sadly, I have a version on which the recording is accompanied by some pops of static and noise squeals when the guitars grind through tremolos, though since I haven't seen any other complaints, I assume it is only a fault with a low quality version or similar.

In any case, it is beyond a doubt that Cemetary produced a highly accomplished example (and one of very few) of death metal influenced by the brutal gothic that was also prevalent in death doom. This does not sound like a two-way battle between gothic elements and death metal riffing, nor a creepy version of Asphyx's slow death, but a true blending of atmosphere and brutality. As such, it recommends itself to a wide field of potential listeners, who should not be deterred by any negative connotations accompanying epithets like "gothic" and "atmospheric". A little dated now, but a real winner for individuality.

Wow, is this ever a creepy album! Coming from Sweden with some artwork that makes me think of Left Hand Path and pea soup, you know you're getting into something dark and disgusting.

It's Swedish. I've said that, and it sounds like it, but with a bit murkier production and some nearly sloppy playing. This could pass for a demo, granted a well-made and enjoyable demo. The drums blast along, slowing down a few times to bring that "you're fucked" doom feeling, but most of the time, it's a straight thrash beat, and it feels like it's going to fly off the rails at any moment. And fuck, those guitars are the ugliest sounding beasts I've probably ever heard. Imagine the classic Swedish sound of chainsaw guitars, done up cheap, add bass, and have the pick actually scraping the strings in the tremolo parts...that part sounds like soft cheese squeaking against your teeth. Damn, I'm almost uncomfortable thinking about that sound!

And speaking of riffs...this has more in common with Mexican death metal (Cenotaph, Shub Niggurath, and early the Chasm) and the tremolo picking of Darkthrone's Soulside Journey (which is an excellent album, by the way), than Entombed. The influence of those legendary Swedes only pops up when you get to the frantic solos. The groovy parts do, however, recall Grave, with their catchiness and brutality. There's a surprising degree of melody popping up from time to time, not unlike Death's Leprosy, and the morbid riffing of Possessed. But the most "melody" you're really going to get on here is a swept melody over simple riffing or an acoutstic guitar. None of that fruity, frilly Gothenburg stuff here!

One thing I really like are the keyboards; they're way too loud in the mix, and almost improperly mixed, but they sound like the soundtrack from Stephen King's IT. Just take your favourite Casio Beginner $100 keyboard, choose the DARK GOTH ORGAN and play along to some classic Swedish death metal. Goddamn, does this work!

Cemetary made gothic doom stuff for the rest of the career, with some forays into a relatively "mainstream," melodic direction. But not here. No, this is the album that gives Hot Topic children and pseudo-metal emo kids nightmares and sends them into endless psychiatric care for the rest of their mortal lives. I can think of no other album on which the guitar tone alone can scare the piss out fo the sensitive.

The Swedish death metal scene evolved approximately in 1990. Around that time a lot of Swedish bands had very similar sound and style. Scratchy distortion, fast riffs, grubby vocals, filthy lyrics and room for recording errors are a few examples of highly common characteristics is the genre. Bands like: Entombed, Grave and Dismember took the lead in that music-style and quickly dozens of other bands started to form. all with a very alike sound, that isn't so original as it was many years ago. Cemetary however didn't blindly follow all those groups up, they created their own innovative brand of death metal. The only band I know that comes close to the style of Cemetary is the “Old” Sentenced.

Yes, they have scratchy distortion and fast riffs etc., but they have, like I said; “Their own innovative brand of death metal”. Let me explain why. Cemetary takes their time when they have to. Quite some bands out there want to get the fastest, most brutal album possible and I guess they would accomplish that if they wouldn’t lack any atmosphere or charm. Cemetary plays at a few different speeds, both slow and epic, a lot of times accompanied by a haunting synth-organ or fast and thrashing, while still keeping it original and brutal by not only playing low notes but creating a clear vision of what’s happening with the melody. At times when the riffs are very dark and full of bass, the production and the groovy-ness are able to produce a tremendous comprehensible sound.

An Evil Shade of Grey is lyrically remarkable, even when reading the lyrics separate from the album. The lines are saturated in an crepuscular ambiance, even though I experience the lyrics not that grim when you also listen to it.

The vocals are nothing new; we have all heard them before, yet somehow they’re different from the rest. ‘Cause at times that Mathias Lodmalm whispers, it remind me of an Agalloch album or an old Opeth album. The vocals are obligated to adapt to the relatively softer parts on the album and he did that flawlessly.

The only spots on the album that I have found are the few moments where the grunts aren’t that full and deep but are too sharp and without any depth. I cannot explain it any better, at those moment they don’t lack any power but are too shallow-sounding. The remain spots aren’t worthy of being mentioned.

All in All, This album is a underrated classic, it is nearly flawless and is original though that it is still obviously Swedish death metal.

Moving mostly at a slower or mid-paced tempo for a rhythmical foundation conducive to a mood of eerie darkness, but with sudden bursts of speed to represent urgent madness of incensed fright, Cemetary applies the defining stylistic features of early 1990s Stockholm Death Metal in a way that produces an obscurely sinister and gloomy atmosphere, using rhythm and tempo as a backdrop to the changing atmospheric landscapes, while lead elements express the substance of theme in a character of twilight distance that whispers behind its savagery that there is something more to this tangible existence. A nefariously undertoned growling voice paces syllabic emphasis along to rhythmic patterns marked out by simplistic but active drumming, while murky riffs enwrap the music in shades of dark actuality illuminated by lucid guitar leads from which emerge transcendent melodies: reality and dreamworld become one in this luridly imaginative music that seeks the uncharted possibilities of a finite existence.

"Revel within your time
but make it last an eternity
because life is not all
that is going to be"

Translucent guitar solos and atmospheric leads inject streaming melodic clarity casting light into the shadows of dark riffs, further illuminated by shimmering but darkly enchanting keyboards used tastefully to highlight passages with ascending splendor in songs that are composed with emphasis on rhythmic variation to orchestrate transitions in thematic mood. The variety of tempo maintains a constant motion of gradual and smooth exchange between slow, doom rhythms and blasting speed, and diverse rates of motion in-between, executed with simplicity as the structural forms call for the imagination within the defining themes of each song to manifest through the design, meaning that any instrumental complexity would pose a threat to atmospheric consistency

Defining the rhythmic construction, rhythm guitars shape an abstract spatial pattern for atmospherically simple drumbeats which direct a fluid rhythmic motion symbolizing a song’s fate, which is realized through a reflective rhythmic conception and its formalization through a progression of riffs. Each song functions on a balance of contrasting darkness with light, like wandering through dark, damp caverns with unexpected and brilliant flashes of radiant light streaming in from mysterious cracks overhead, and in this way Cemetary achieves the beauty in darkness, with atmospheric spaciousness and flowing style of execution that brings each development into clear from its obscure origins, enhanced by a Studio Sunlight production which magnifies the band’s equilibrium of clarity and abstraction through a murky guitar sound and increased resonation on guitar leads and keyboards.

"But so it shall not be
and that I have always known
for on the tree of grief
my fruit has grown"

Drowning in darkness yet never losing sight of the beauty of the experience and therefore its meaning, the music is at times menacing and unforgiving in its gothic horror, but this is starkly contrasted by a Romantic sentiment expressed through the emotional eloquence of the guitar solos and lead melodies, and reaches a certain twilight aura through reflective acoustic guitar passages interwoven into the stream of sound. Due primarily to its late arrival, this album is not usually mentioned in discussions of classic Swedish death metal releases of the time, however An Evil Shade of Grey maintains its relevance and distinction through captivating songwriting, melodic lucidity, atmospheric presence, and expressive character within a gloom-world soundpicture wherein anger and sorrow dance from the dusk of perishing dreams to the dawn of limitless possibility.

Released in 1992, Cemetary’s An Evil Shade Of Grey is a great death/doom metal hybrid from Sweden that is unfortunately buried into obscurity relative to the popularity of Katatonia, a band which is similar in many ways. The one major difference between this and, say, Dance Of December Souls is that Cemetary embraced the death metal aspect of their sound much more than Katatonia did, and personally, I find that to make this a very interesting album to listen to.

The riffs here are the main focus. They’re either catchy, mid to slow-paced death metal riffs, or melodic, doomier, more drawn out riffs that are the trademark of doom metal. What interests me here is the transition between riff styles (the title track is a great example of this at work), which is nothing short of masterful in my opinion. By emphasizing both styles entirely, instead of hiding one underneath the other, Cemetary crafted an album that always keeps the listener interested in the rhythmic elements of the songs. This is the kind of album that will have you racing with a blastbeat for one second, and then transition to a doomy riff topped with an acoustic guitar melody at the next second, but unlike some bands like Opeth where the transition feels a bit forced at times, the transitions here are simply seamless.

Another very interesting element of this album is the layer of synthesized sounds. Whether it’s a chilling collection of a synthesized choir, or an eerie keyboard sound over one of the death metal riffs, the synthesized sounds on this album really add a great deal of depth to the overall sound and make the album sound very textured. Oh yeah, this shit’s nice and creepy, too, which is perfect for that atmosphere that many death/doom bands strive for.

Speaking of that atmosphere, that’s one of the main differences between this and Dance Of December Souls. To me, that sounds more like an album attempting to achieve a depressing, melancholic atmosphere, where this is going for the creepy, lost, “wandering aimlessly in a forest in the middle of nowhere” atmosphere hinted at by the album cover. Needless to say, I think Cemetary succeeded at creating this atmosphere.

The main melodic elements of the album are the lead guitar, which plays the creepy sort of leads and solos that you’d expect on a death/doom album, and an acoustic guitar that appears every so often on top of a doomy riff that tends to mark a drastic shift the dynamics of the song. In all honesty, I don’t think that the acoustic guitar is really necessary on this album, but it does add a nice touch that I certainly appreciate, and it diversifies the sound quite a bit, which is obviously a good thing.

This is, sadly, one of the many forgotten albums of the Swedish death metal scene, but it’s actually quite unique and deserving of much more praise than it currently receives. While it’s definitely different than any of Katatonia’s early albums, I can’t see any reason why a fan of those albums wouldn’t like this. In addition, anyone who wants a bit of atmosphere and melody mixed with their death metal (without sacrificing the great riffs that are often lost when people end up listening to some lame Gothenburg melodeath for this exact reason) should like this as well.

Written for http://thenumberoftheblog.com/

Now, tell me how many bands from Sweden started as death metal ones to turn gothic…well, we have Sentences, Tiamat and these Cemetary. Seems to me that death metal in Sweden, at the beginning of the 90s, was a quite abused genre and anyone wanted to play it. After the explosion of bands like Carnage, Entombed and Dismember, lots of bands jumped on this train.

Anyways, I must admit that each band had its personal style, maybe also because the genre was quite new and each band could add something personal in the sound. In my opinion this Cemetary already showed few signs of what the sound would have become in the near future. Take as example the keyboards part in the opener “Dead Red”. They are quite melodic to fill the atmosphere with gloom. Their death metal, itself, is not so common and far from being the classic one.

It’s a very dark form of death. It’s quite complicated too with lots of tempo changes and guitars duets, especially on the lead lines as you can hear on the following “Where the Rivers of Madness Stream”, where we can find also acoustic arpeggios. The speed is never too high and, in this way, they can point more on the sheer gloom attack. There are few up tempo parts and when we meet them, they are always well balanced and broken by various mid tempo sections. The riffs have always a black metal touch and when the keyboards parts enter the sound, the whole atmosphere is damned obscure.

The vocals are on growls but they are not to extreme, having already the right tonality to sing also in a gothic/doom metal band. The production is quite clear but it has always that old fashioned tune to be really murky. The grotesque riffage on the title track, along with some keys, is one of the sickest things on this album. There are also some up tempo sections. The solos have that occult touch and they are really weird for the strange sounds they put out.

Their almost atmospheric death metal continues in the notes of the doomish “Sidereal Passing”. The up tempo is perfect balanced with gloom and ritualistic, calmer parts. It is very difficult to pass through this forest of tempo changes full of almost inhuman, unnatural and scary keyboards sound. Even the few blast beats parts are incredibly cold and when the lead guitars give the support for the atmosphere, there’s nothing left to live. All seems stone cold. This is a truly weird and murky death metal album and worth a listen for its burden of mystery and occultism.

Here we have yet another great album from the glory years of the Thomas Skogsberg prod. era... What we find here is nothing short of spectacular, melancholic, dark, swedish death. You can guess what the production sounds like, since this was another great record produced at Studio Sunlight. Thick, evil guitar sound, with the traditional rawness that was trademark for that studio in the late 80s/early 90s... Vocally, the style is a bit of a higher style such as Nirvana 2002, etc. etc. as opposed to deepness like Jorgen/Grave... There is sparing use of keyboards minorly just to accent certain points, and they do it wonderfully. There are also some great doomy passages full of feeling, and some small acoustic interludes thrown in for good measure too. All these elements contribute in creating one of the most dark and sick sound from that era. Production on here is just simply scary sounding, the only way to really describe it... Cover artwork was also done by Kristian "necrolord" Wahllin, and he uses his trademark style (that was still developing at this time) to make a visual representation of the evilness found on the recorded material inside... All in all, a perfect swedish deathmetal masterpiece, and still one of my favorite records from that era/genre...