UMUR
"A Pyre of Lost Dreams" is the debut full-length studio album by Danish doom metal act Black Wreath. The album was released through Head Not Found in November 2009. While "A Pyre of Lost Dreams" is a debut album, the three musicians behind the band, certainly aren´t debutants. Kim Larsen (guitars, synths, drums, vocals), who is credited for most of the songwriting on the album, is known for his involvement in acts like Saturnus, Of the Wand & the Moon, Solanaceae, Blazing Eternity and The Loveless. Peter Mesnickow (vocals, drums) is known for his involvement with Blazing Eternity and Dave Müller (bass, synth) is also a part of Whelm. It´s audible that the musicians are experienced and quite skilled too and it´s a great asset to the album.
The music on the album is one part old school doom/death metal with a symphonic edge in the vein of early My Dying Bride and one part funeral doom. The latter influence ensures that the pace is kept very, very slow throughout the album, while the former provides epic melancholic melodies which at times, when there are most layers of instrumentation, becomes almost symphonic in nature. There are some truly breathtaking moments on the album like the last couple of minutes of "Solitude Rising (Missing All Exit)", which brilliantly combines epic symponic doom/death metal with dark/obscure funeral doom. The music is slow building and atmospheric. The vocals on the album are growls.
There are only 4 tracks on the 50:31 minutes long album, but as the minutes count reveals the tracks are very long. The first three tracks all exceed the 13 minutes mark while the fourth and final track on the album titled "Nidstöng" is just short of 8 minutes long. The first three tracks are high quality doom/death/funeral doom tracks with a great dark atmosphere but "Nidstöng" isn´t nearly as exciting. It´s a kind of ambient/atmospheric track and while it does suit the dark atmosphere of the album, it´s not as accomplished nor as intriguing as the remaining tracks.
The sound production hits the right balance between the grand and epic, and the more dark and gritty. It´s a suiting sound for these tracks.
"A Pyre of Lost Dreams" is overall a great quality release by "Black Wreath" where the band succeed in making doomy and repetitive riffing an integrated and interesting part of a greater atmospheric whole. The synths that the band add to the music work really well for the dark and symphonic atmosphere and all in all the band are obviously really clever songwriters. A 3.5 - 4 star (75%) rating is warranted. If "Nidstöng" had been a bit more interesting this would have been a full 4 star (80%) rating.