In Solitude The World. The Flesh. The Devil.

In Solitude The World. The Flesh. The Devil.

(Metal Blade Records)

By: Chris Davison

First, it was re-heated thrash. Then, it was re-heated old school death metal. Then, it was “djent” (oh, "lord," please strike down those responsible for this crime). Now it's – THE NEW WAVE OF TRADITIONAL METAL. Except, for the most part, it's not really as awesome a prospect as you might think it is. Sure, everyone likes the old school gallop, the soaring vocals and the twin guitar attack favoured by my British forebears. In practice, however, it generally boils down to this: recycled Iron Maiden riffs endlessly solo’ed over and bereft of any real inspiration other than the most blatant cookie-cutter composition, and horribly contrived stage outfits that look like early promo pics of Def Leppard.

It doesn’t help that the bands that are aped are often the same four – Maiden, Priest, Motörhead and Saxon. All great bands, to be sure, but not the only great outfits operating from 1979-84. Indeed, arguably the best albums of the period are the mighty Melissa and Don’t Break The Oath by Mercyful Fate. While their back catalogue has been ceaselessly plundered by successions of Black Metal disciples, lured no doubt by the proto- corpse paint and Satanic themes of the King himself, there hasn’t really been a band that has been more directly influenced by them in terms of their keen ear for spooky melodies, and, in particular, the trademark guitar work of Denner and Sherman.

In Solitude are that band. If it were just the fact that they have the Mercyful Fate sound down to an absolute tee, then that would be cool, if not particularly interesting except for the fact that no one else is doing it. What is absolutely jaw dropping is that they manage to grasp the absolute essence of the music, producing original tunes that not only could have been Mercyful Fate tunes from back in the day, but in many cases are better than anything that Mercyful Fate themselves have put out since 1984.

The Upsala upstarts have all the chops: Niklas and Hendrik, the twin axemen of the outfit have a nice line in producing those delicious dark melodies, which allow Pelle to flex his majestic voice over the top. It’s a very King Diamond delivery – albeit without the falsetto, but then attempting to ape that as well as the general tone and timbre of his voice would have fallen away from affectionate tribute and more into comedy impression territory. Drum and bass work is followed in the best traditions of the NWOBHM sound – complete with gallops-a-plenty and plenty of groove in the skin-bashing. The songwriting is absolutely top notch, and elevate In Solitude well above 90% of their peers, with the likes of “To Her The Darkness” being well over the five minute mark, shadowy epic metal with hints of prime Candlemass subtly injected into the mix. The production is bright and shiny, with plenty of clarity for all the black atmosphere seeping into the ears.

An absolutely brilliant album, and, by, far the best retro-inspired platter to have been played on my equipment for a very long time.

In Solitude MySpace