REVIEWS

Soulfallen - Grave New World
		Tracklisting: 01. Hearse With No Name 02. Devour 03. To the Wolves at My Door 04. This World is Bleeding Flies 05. Grave New World 06. Towers of Silence 07. Embrace the Scythe 08. Serenity's Throne 09. We Are the Sand Total: 46:48		Rating:   Links: - Official Website - Off Records
After less than two years, Soulfallen release a follow-up album to their debut, World Expiration. For those that liked the first album, it's safe to say not much has changed in their style. They just took a step forward, and the new album, Grave New World, sounds more mature and also a bit stronger songwriting-wise. There is more variety in the songs than earlier, which makes the album more interesting. The songs simply fit together better and form a better unit. We are still dealing with a pretty dark and melancholic band playing a mixture of death and black metal here. Symphonic orchestrations play a big role as well and are present throughout the album. This shouldn't give you the impression that this is some kind of symphonic or dark/gothic metal band such as those that pop up everywhere nowadays. The general feeling is pretty dark and the vocals are aggressive. Or just in other words, as described by them on their website: "The extremes have been pushed even further as the music flows from ethereal orchestrations to aggressive guitar patterns on its path to the very core of Finnish melancholy. This is the soundtrack to the burial of an entire world!" Both the first and the last song are a bit longer than the average "4 minute song" and give the album a structure with a starting and endpoint, without needing additional intros or outros. The album starts with "Hearse With No Name", a song that has a certain Swallow The Sun feeling, but yet the pace is much faster in direct comparison, less doomy and of course more orchestrations are used. Compared to the debut, it sounds less movie soundtrack-like and overall a little bit softer. Unfortunately, the strings used in the background are almost a bit too much for my taste. Luckily the orchestrations haven't been used that excessively in all songs on the album. Since the song works as the introduction to the album, this can be excused. "To The Wolves at My Door" reminds a bit of "Death Of The Tyrant" from World Expiration, but doesn't quite live up to the potential. The rhythms and the orchestrations add a lot to the dark and haunting atmosphere, and the vocals sound almost scary. Another very good song is "Serenity's Throne". Quite fast for a change, and here the orchestrations I had to critize in the beginning work much better. Both the aggressiveness in the vocals and the almost calm keyboards melodies in the background fit together very well. The same thing basically applies to the title track, "Grave New World", with the exception that the mixture of screams and growls comes out best here. The absolute highlight for me is the last song, "We Are The Sand", that features Lars Eikind (Before The Dawn) on clean vocals and might also appeal to Before The Dawn fans. The song conveys a feeling of melancholy and hopelessness. Both in regard to the complementary vocals of Lars Eikind and Soulfallen's own Kai Leikola and the music itself, the whole song works much better than the other songs on the album. This is exactly where Soulfallen should link to on their next album. Definitely a song to listen to over and over again without losing anything. The album surely isn't perfect, but especially with "We Are The Sand" they showed their potential. I would say they are on the right way. Silence
Released: 2009, Off Records