Band:	Mar De Grises
Album:	Streams Inwards
Style:	Doom metal
Release date:	August 30, 2010
A review by:	BitterCOld

01. Starmaker
02. Shining Human Skin
03. The Bell And The Solar Gust
04. Spectral Ocean
05. Sensing The New Orbit
06. Catatonic North
07. Knotted Delirium
08. A Sea Of Dead Comets
09. Aphelion Aura [limited edition bonus]

Mar De Grises are a band that utilize an alchemical approach to music. Their process combines the heavy emotional impact of doom metal with a cerebral prog influence and imagination inspiring ambient passages to create sonic gold. As a result, the music ultimately appeals to listeners on many levels. Streams Inwards, their third full length, sees the band continuing to employ the aforementioned elements of their arsenal, adding in some Post-metal to boot. (Enough so that the Seasons Of Mist site lists the band as Post-Doom. I guess journalists can feel free to like the band now that the "post-" tag is affixed)

The continued cross-pollination of styles has resulted in an album that is every bit as stunning as their past releases? MDG seem to almost effortlessly shift from quieter moments with clean guitars and vocals to the thundering assault of Juan Escobar's bellowing death/doom throat work and bludgeoning power chords. Of course, even the crushing riffs are often accompanied by a second guitar playing a mournful melody line over the top, allowing the band to capture multiple emotions and add to the complexity of those passages. The keyboards top it off, adding an otherworldly aura to the music, as in "Sea Of Dead Comets".

The songs within are long and sprawling, with the shifts in style being fairly drastic and, at times, rather abrupt. The expansive tracks with sudden directional changes sweep the listener up and take them along for a ride. At times the journey is tranquil and relaxing, at other times the path becomes dark and foreboding, with hints at terrors unseen. The destination is unknown and, ultimately immaterial, the listener is just all too happy to be a part of the experience.

"Aphelion Aura", the digipack bonus track, captures almost the same "floating adrift in space" vibe utilized so well by Oranssi Pazuzu last year? with some equally free female vocals that really ends things in a somewhat ironic note. The album is dubbed Streams Inwards, yet will leave the listener floating outward.

Ultimately this is a fantastic album, and with less of the year in front of us rather than behind, likely to top a lot "best of" lists.