Band:	Agnes Vein
Album:	Soulship
Style:	Doom metal
Release date:	May 01, 2013
A review by:	BitterCOld

01. ΔΙ Αyгhσ - To Know The God Within
02. March Of The Netherworld
03. Chaos Cauldron
04. Soulship
05. Eventus
06. Bloodfiend

Soulship, the second full length effort from Agnes Vein proved to be a difficult album to write-up and I have no idea as to why it has baffled me so.

I certainly like the album. It's as if these Greeks decided, "Hey, let's take a bunch of attributes of bands that schmuck (insert the proper Greek slang here) who reviews stuff at Metalstorm likes and craft an album around it all."

The foundation of their sound is basically that nice doom-sludge overlap, with the instruments hammered and beat upon with the ferocity of the grimiest sludge. Toss in some raspy black metal style vocals and the occasional clean sung vocals to add some ambiance. And we'll make the whole thing sound great and massive as well.

Let's not do anything overly dramatic, either. Let's steal a page from the best of post metal and have the songs slowly build up as they sprawl along. We'll also mix in a couple, shorter songs ("Chaos Cauldron" and the closer "Bloodfiend") that ratchet the tempo and ferocity up from the get-go, just to keep things fresh.

As if that's not enough, here and there I pick out even more hints and influences - "Eventus" at times sounds like it could be mid-00's Enslaved. At others times I found myself harkening back nearly 20 years to when I had Godflesh Selfless spinning pretty much for months on end. Yeah, a sludge-doom overlap that at times draws from 90's industrial metal and Black Floyd.

I guess perhaps the biggest reason I've problems reviewing it is that it's not super evocative. It sits in that troubling verbal vortex between visceral and cerebral albums. The ones that, when trying to write a review, make me feel like Pedro Cerrano trying to hit a curve ball. In that regard it reminds me of [url= http://metalstorm.net/pub/review.php?review_id=8768]Danishmendt[/url]. Enjoyed both albums very much, but found it difficult to articulate my appreciation. Action words and modifiers aren't leaping off the screen at me.

Bah, I'm just babbling at this point. While I am clearly failing to describe the "why", suffice it to say, I like this album and if you're reading my increasingly tangential review and liked what I've reviewed prior, don't waste any more time on me. Hang up on this review like a wrong number and check this album out. [url= http://agnesvein.bandcamp.com/]Their tunes[/url] >>> my words.