I was very skeptical about this one; I was wondering whether an artist who has connected his name with an entire Metal genre can produce something different. I mean can you think Iommi releasing a Nu Metal album or Chronos doing his stuff playing Gothic Metal? Of course, you don't because then the world would turn upside down. This discussion has to do with Leif's debut solo album who decided to fill the time gap until the new CANDLEMASS album with an almost side project. My aforementioned skepticism had to do with the purpose of this release. What possible could Lief offer us that couldn't under the Doom heavy shadow of his brainchild CANDLEMASS? Let us see...
First of all, be prepared because Leif is behind the microphone so don't expect something special. To be more specific Leif sounds like he is narrating stories that go hand in hand with the haunting mid to low tempo music. And this is the interesting part; the music. Leif hits hard the Doom pedal with down tuned guitars, bone breaking bass and out of space keyboards. The Scar kicks in with a massive bass guitar sound supported by the pompous keyboard melodies that take to Lovecraftian landscapes traveling through starless skies. It Is Not There and Angelic 'Til I Die is attracted by the CANDLEMASS prime sound with distinct melodies and a solid dark atmosphere. This atmosphere becomes 'alive' in On the Edge of Time with the ton heavy groove and the out of this place keyboard main melody. What I found extremely interesting is the fact that the album sounds like the perfect soundtrack for book reading. Seriously, I lost myself reading Ann Rice's Servant Of The Bones while listening to the album. Even though the book remains on the 'good' side the album's evil breath did an excellent job on leaning the balance a little bit towards the left hand path for my personal joy. Butterfly is an instrumental track that is basically some nice bass guitar melodies that simply cannot escape the Doom clouds gather above.
The best moment of the album is Nautilus that obviously was inspired by Jules Verne sci-fi masterpiece Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. Even though the track is instrumental it takes you inside the famous submarine to explore the darker parts of abysmal oceans and meet eerie creatures. The sonar-like sound effect is the finishing touch here in the description of water surrounded landscapes where no human has ever been.
Leaving aside all the pictures created while listening to this album I can say that Leif managed to impress me with this sound proposition. He did not try to fool us by trying to escape the Doom genre; on the contrary he dived deeper to this sound getting in places that would be difficult to go under CANDLEMASS's moniker. I cannot dare think how this album would sound with a singer on the lineup... If you don't believe me just pay a visit to his myspace page to listen for yourself (www.myspace.com/leifedling)