Avatarium - The Fire I Long For - review
Avatarium - The Fire I Long For - review
Tracklist
01. Voices02. Rubicon
03. Lay Me Down
04. Porcelain Skull
05. Shake That Demon
06. Great Beyond
07. The Fire I Long For
08. Epitaph Of Heroes
09. Stars They Move
A review by
nikarg December 31, 2019
Nuclear Blast promoted this album by calling it 'dark gospel', and this is one of the rare occasions that a label actually nails it with a press release. Still, the best description one could give was provided by the most famous / infamous figure of this website who called it 'adult-oriented doom' (a term borrowed from adult-oriented rock or AOR).
The album is indeed demonstrating the softer side of Avatarium, either with ballads such as the country-tinged "Lay Me Down" and the melancholic title track or with the '70s retro rocking single "Rubicon" and the band's homage to Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir" in "Great Beyond". The heaviest cuts are the two -out of three in total- tracks written by Edling; "Porcelain Skull" is based upon riffs and bass notes taken straight from Candlemass's playbook and only gets lighter when its organ-filled chorus is heard and when the lead guitar soars in the outro, while "Epitaph Of Heroes" is also riff-centric and generally adopts a more occult vibe.
The thing with The Fire I Long For is that even though it is remarkably good in the songwriting department, boasting a weighty guitar tone, a distinctive bass rumble and some dazzling organ parts (especially in "Voices"), it wouldn't be half as good with another singer. Jennie-Ann Smith's voice overflows the album with warmth, passion, seductiveness, sadness and pain all at the same time and it is this very gifted woman that accentuates the music's spellbinding atmosphere, be it in the rocking tunes, the sensitive ballads or the epic Swedish doom tracks.
Avatarium's fourth full-length oozes maturity, not in the sense of it being watered down, but in the way a bottle of exquisite wine is left in the cellar for a long time and is only opened when it is ready to reveal all of its aroma and taste. And it is the doom rocker I was longing for to close what has been a magnificent year for the doomier side of metal.
"No leaves on the trees
Flowers made of stone
Just a cold bitter wind
Blowing through my bones"
Comments
Comments:
9
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Posts: 8271
Last review of the year/decade. Happy new year Metalstormers, wishing you all the best for 2020! 
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Who is that geezer who said it, I Never hear about it. Dark gospel well i agree. One of rare csses when label says it right. More you listen more you like it, and whole band albums. Its hard IMO for young people who likes moshpit. Leffe has way to much to do ah old days hehe. Lyrics you tock. Its How it feels in winter in capita city where humidity is huge. In a north in minus extreme like 30 boned never freeze.
---- I stand whit Ukraine and Israel. They have right to defend own citizens. Stormtroopers of Death - "Speak English or Die"  I better die, because I never will learn speek english, so I choose dieing
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Posts: 9636
Adult-oriented doom implies the existence of children-oriented doom
---- Do you think if the heart keeps on shrinking One day there will be no heart at all?
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Posts: 21306 Written by RaduP on 31.12.2019 at 08:48 Aka Draconian and Swallow the Sun.
---- "Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something."
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Posts: 64500 Written by Troy Killjoy on 31.12.2019 at 08:53 Good bands, but first band has some mental distuebences in their mental health. Teenager orianteted doom
---- I stand whit Ukraine and Israel. They have right to defend own citizens. Stormtroopers of Death - "Speak English or Die" I better die, because I never will learn speek english, so I choose dieing
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Posts: 6212 Written by nikarg on 31.12.2019 at 02:23 This decade ends on December 31st 2020. Nice review!
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Posts: 673 Written by RaduP on 31.12.2019 at 08:48 Either that or Adult-oriented doom is post emo but only closer to the goal
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Posts: 8271 Written by Daniell on 31.12.2019 at 18:42 Well, it doesn't really matter anymore since we have now officially transcended the confines of time here on Metal Storm 
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Posts: 5654
Loved this, glad they're back
---- I thought the two primary purposes for the internet were cat memes and overreactions.
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