The 11th Hour – Burden of Grief

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As if being one of the best, if untrumpeted, metal drummers in the World weren’t good enough, Ed Warby (Gorefest/Ayreon) plays all of the instruments on this debut doom masterpiece (how many of those can there be in one year?) with Ribspreader/Paganizer front-man and Warby’s Demiurg band-mate Rogga Johansson on vocals. Burden of Grief is a concept album about a man diagnosed with terminal lung disease and plagued by nightmares, and in the style of truly epic doom the feeling of total despair is created expertly across the six relentlessly heavy tracks. Like a doom version of Opeth, complete with desperately sombre keyboard parts between the crushing, and varying, riffs, the interplay of Warby’s melodic whine against Johansson’s death growl creates that same kind of grand storytelling and mirrors the inner dialogue of the central character perfectly. 2009 has been an incredible year for doom metal, to the point where the fast-approaching end-of-year top ten could almost be entirely doom, and in such a strong year it’s quite remarkable for any album arriving as late as October to be such a contender. For epic doom fans, if you don’t mind some death vocals alongside the more traditional elements, Burden of Grief is breathtaking.

Written by Andy Lye
More: Albums, Doom Metal, Quick.Play Reviews, The 11th Hour