Spiritual Wasteland

For those of you who still don’t know the band in the booklet the guys thank Leif Edling who is no more no less than mr. Candlemass himself. That tells a lot about the band’s main influence. As it was stated in my last review, Veni Domine can be considered the Christian version for Candlemass and Solitude Aeternus as well.

Where Material Sanctuary was a very solid effort in the same vein as Candlemass, Spiritual Wasteland marks a departure from the epic monumental orchestration doom metal. From now on they begin experimenting with a more synthesizer and more progressive elements. The conceptual arc is still present and they still write about apocalyptic topics and society as a condemned entity. Very much in the vein of future dehumanized societies like the movie Equilibrium or even Metropolis. However, they also include the concept of the anti-Christ ruling the world. The final narration in ‘The letter’ clearly shows the hopeless desolation of a man thinking about the future where philosophical figures emerge to try to understand the cold environment where he lives in.

Being that said, in regards to the music this is a difficult album to describe. There are, basically, no fast tracks or even mid tempo. Only ‘1st, of Ten’ is fast, and not the entire song, but some rhythm parts. Again, the emphasis of keyboards to give this haunting atmospheric mood is well performed; the problem I find with this is that it lacks power and metal. Of course, Fredrik’s voice is still in top form and he can still scream and reach those high notes which we all love. He is by far one of the best singers out there. I think he should be invited to Ayreon’s metal operas one of these days.

‘Dawn of time’ is very strange in regards to the pace and the progressive drum pattern makes it hard to digest at first listening. ‘Last letter from Earth’ sounds very much like those songs from Material Sanctuary

If I fall asleep is kind of a ‘ballad’ (if I can put it in this category). The song is very slow and doomy. It is almost narrated and the guitars are almost imperceptible. The strong focal point is bass guitar to give this doomy and desolate feeling. Fredrik sings in a very low tone. ‘The Temple’ follows the same rule and it is quite enchanting so by now, you can expect the same song writing throughout the album.

The inclusion of progressive elements makes it even harder to swallow, since the different tempo changes and overuse of atmospheric elements takes off the continuity and punch that you can expect from these bands. On the bright side, same as Candlemass and Solitude Aeternus they do write intelligent and though provoking lyrics. The songs take their time to build up beginning with either only drumming with keyboards, bass with clear acoustic guitars, guitars with keyboards, bass with vocals or any other combination you can think of. Those combinations are present throughout the album to give you the feeling of a melancholic atmosphere. They manage to do it very well. But again, this album would appeal to fans more in the elegant progressive genre (Vanden Plas comes o my mind or even some reminiscence of Threshold), more than doom metal fans. There are no more exquisite guitar solos as in the past albums, but they are composed in a way to go along with the music’s mood. They purposely wrote music that will act as a whole, instead of appealing to specific genre or instrumental fans. Torbjorn has sacrificed the punch and soloing in the guitars department in order to resemblance classical music which will take into account all instrumentation and avoiding one instrument stepping up.

So my friends proceed with precaution on this album. You have to be, definitely, fan of progressive metal and you have to take time to listen to this haunting album. It is not for listening while you are at work, neither has it the crunch of Candlemass ‘Nightfall, or even to listen while you are at home headbanging. In order to fully appreciate this you have to be at night, turn off the lights and lay down watching the roof so you can get involved by the mystery and coldness this albums brings up. This is definitely proof of how metal can evolve and how good and intelligent albums can still be put out.

I found Veni Domine quite unexpectedly. I'm a big fan of Candlemass and few months ago I bought the first and only album of Zoic - the side project of Lars Johansson, Mappe Björkman and Jan Lindh from Candlemass. The singer on that album was Fredrik Ohlsson. I didn't knew him before, but I liked his vocals on "Total Level Of Destruction" very much. So I decided to find anything about him. I discovered that he is a singer of another Swedish band - Veni Domine. Their first album I bought was "Spiritual Wasteland"...

The music created by Veni Domine can be called "christian progressive doom metal". "Christian" because all lyrics are about christianity, God, and are based on the Bible. Also band mambers are practicing Catholics. "Progressive" because their music surely isn't easy to comprehend, songs are quite long and complicated. All musicians are technically great instrumentalists. And "doom" because Veni Domine's music is heavy, extremely slow (slower than Candlemass' for sure), and overwhelming. I would also say that the word "psychodelic" could be used to describe at least some songs of Veni Domine.

Now something about the musicians. Usually in progressive bands, the most important and dominating instrument is the guitar. Veni Domine is no exception. Torbjörn Weinesjö is surely a very talented guitarist. He is technically great, his riffs are very interesting and solos are just brilliant! I think Torbjörn can even be called a virtuoso! Great job has done here also bassist Gabriel Ingemarson and drummer Thomas Weinesjö. The rhythmical section plays loud and thick. I also must add, that the keyboard player Mattias Cederlund has impressed me a lot. He plays a little like Ferdy Doernberg. Thanks to his keyboards, Veni Domine's music sounds so... mystical! I like this instrument in metal music, but not many keyboard players know how to use them properly. I mean, keys should be used to build the atmosphere, not making some disco crap from metal music! Mattias surely knows that! And finally the vocalist. Fredrik reminds me mostly Michael Kiske, but he surely isn't some kind of Kiske's clone. He has his own style. Fredrik's voice is also... deeper than Michael's. He fits perfectly to this music.

I won't describe each song, becasue they are equally good. Even though that the only not-slow tune on this album is "The Silent Lamb", the songs are quite different from each other. I must confess that the chorus of afore-mentioned song reminds me something, but I just cannot remember what. Maybe some christmas carol? Or a psalm? I really don't know, but I wouldn't be surprised if I heard something similar in church. But many moons have passed since I've been there last time.

"Spiritual Wasteland" is a very long album - it lasts about 61 minutes. I find this fact good, because I like long albums, but it is true that not often I listen to this whole CD (lack of spare time, and you must concentrate on this music while listening to it). You will find here 10 very slow tracks (although the last one is just a monologue), mostly about 6 minutes long. This music surely isn't for everyone. Many metalheads will find it just boring. But those, who like slow, doomy and gloomy, perfectly played music, will surely like this album a lot!