Kev Rowland
Finnish sludge/doom act Herem have been around since 2005, and this was their second full-length album which was released at the end of 2011. They guys are somewhat unusual in extreme metal in that they have a female singer in Valendis Suomalainen, who also fronts Dead Samaritan. Mind you, for the most part the listener wouldn’t necessarily be able to determine that from the vocals as this is guttural death for the most part, with a sludge backing that has a real edge to the doom with some interesting guitar solos which break through the wall of sound. The production stands out for allowing this album to shine, as when music is as dense as this it is easy for it just to become mud which doesn’t do any favours for anyone. The end result is an album that isn’t breaking any new ground, but is extremely competent at what it is doing as opposed to being exciting and enthralling. Solid, dependable, but nothing really more than that. If you are a hardcore fan of either this style of music or the band then it may be worth investigating, but most metalheads can let this one slip by. www.herem.net