Band:	Mar De Grises
Album:	Draining The Waterheart
Style:	Doom metal
Release date:	April 14, 2008
A review by:	Jeff

Disc I
01. Sleep Just One Dawn
02. Kilómetros De Nada
03. Deep-Seeded Hope Avant-Garde
04. Fantasía
05. Wooden Woodpecker Conversion
06. One Possessed
07. Summon Me
08. Liturgia; Convite Y Prefiguración / Purgatorio / Diálogo Infierno

Disc II [Unconscious Passenger]
01. Unconscious Passenger

"Draining The Waterheart" will, I hope, be considered as the great return of the excellent Doom Metal band from Chile, Mar De Grises. Their first album was already acclaimed by the Doom Metal fans but I'm sure that "Draining The Waterheart" will push the band to the grade of "cult" Doom Metal combo. Definitely, in the Doom Metal scene, it's hard to find something so original and poetic, Mar De Grises is a unique band and I hope that you'll not miss their new masterpiece.

The big difference between Mar De Grises and a lot of other Doom Metal combos is that this band is really unique. It's hard to explain why but let's say that the music of Mar De Grises has of course a lot of personality but also something really magic in its sound. Between melancholic Doom, progressive music and even Post Metal, "Draining The Waterheart" is an amazing album. Mar De Grises is this kind of band which can give you shivers and which always gives emotions through its compositions. The ambiances of "Draining The Waterheart" are unique, really cold on a side but also really attractive and peaceful, really when I listen to this album I can pass from a really disturbing feeling to a really good and tender one. One more time be sure that the songs are long and really complex, the band uses to add a lot of different elements in their songs and even if it's Doom Metal, we're not so far away of Progressive and Psychedelic music like Post Rock and Metal stuff. "Draining The Waterheart" is deep with really great and original arrangements and despite the fact that the songs are long and tortured, they're never boring, if you like Doom and musicians which use their brain of course.

I will not say that Juan Escobar is better than the previous singer but he does a good job on his release and honestly one will not say that we have big differences between them (so if you like the first vocalist, you'll like new one too). The production of the album is good and one more time the artworks are sumptuous, even if the booklet is a bit simple and poor. On the other hand, the album is really homogenous, without being linear. The songs are all really good with excellent ambiances and beautiful melodies, "Draining The Waterheart" is probably even better than "The Tatterdemalion Express" which was already a great album.

"Draining The Waterheart" is a beautiful poetic album. The music of Mar De Grises is not aggressive, or too dark, this is simply poems on amazing melodies. It's hard to find a lot of original bands nowadays but Mar De Grises is one of them, so please if you like slow tempos and touching songs have a look on this new album, "Draining The Waterheart" is without any doubt one of most original and best releases of Doom Metal that we had the chance to listen to lately.