Gardenian

Soulburner (Nuclear Blast)
by Martin Popoff

Second record out for Sweden’s Gardenian is a less death-like affair (yeah!), adding all sorts of accessible melody, strident grooves and little Maiden runs, a direct derivative I’m sure of the success of bands like Arch Enemy, The Haunted, Katatonia, God Dethroned, and a half dozen cleaned-up high-profile black metal acts. The result is a pure and malevolent metal that kills pussy power metal dead, despite the band’s posies and daisies moniker! Ex-Artch vocalist Erik Hawk cameos on more than half the album, Gardenian adding one more of many fleeting accessible surprises, mixing up the velocities and prog flourishes smartly, while pasting the listener to the wall with harsh, midrangey production values and slightly death-like vocals much of the time. A nice apocalyptic flare to the thing.
(PO Box 43618 Philadelphia, PA 19106)