Album Review: Avatarium - Between You, God, The Devil & The Dead

Though they are not exactly similar bands, Avatarium and Lucifer have both spent their entire careers as talented groups whose potential has outweighed their actual output. Lucifer righted that equation last year with their fifth album, and now we turn to see if Avatarium can do the same thing. The doom collective has had moments where it felt like they were on the verge of breaking through, most notably on their "The Fire I Long For" album. That was when I heard what they could be, and I was convinced they would get there.

That they did not follow that record up with the step forward I was expecting was disappointing, but perhaps not surprising. The band was still weaning themselves off the connections that helped start their career, and finding their footing as a wholly separate entity may have just required a bit of time. They deserved a break.

This new album finds the band leaning more into their doom roots than they have for the last couple of records. The guitars have a layer of fuzzy grime that is unmistakable as anything else, and the song lengths make obvious the tempos rarely pick up. That sets the stage for Jennie-Ann's voice to deliver a more dramatic performance to fill the space, which she attempts to do. Her voice is something different for the world of doom, and has always been what makes Avatarium appeal to people like me who are not aficionados of the genre.

Jennie-Ann's vocals drip with the mix of sweet and bitter that comes from burning off alcohol into a caramel. There is an echo of the past in her voice, raising questions of whether the doom we feel is time looping back on itself so the mistake we have made are ahead of us in the distance. That's all rather melodramatic, but we're talking about doom here, so a bit of that is warranted. When you listen to the scuzzy guitars and swirling organs in "I See You In The Dark", it all makes sense. The swell into the chorus, and the haunting harmony vocals, make it a hypnotizing bit of work that evokes everything I've ever loved about Avatarium.

Recently, a new adaptation of "Nosferatu" came out, and the lessons of film history can teach us something about music as well. The original movie was made in 1922, and cannot be mistaken as anything but of that time. Yet, despite a remake in the 70s and the new version just out, there is something unsettling about the original that cannot be captured with the better cameras and technology that came later. Cleaner cinematography and more believable makeup do not make for a better movie, they actually remind us what we are watching is in fact a recreation of real life. The limitations are what made the original so terrifying people believed its star must have been an actual vampire.

When it comes to doom, that same distance is important to keep in mind. When the music becomes too clean, it loses the gripping power of melancholy. There needs to be enough fraying of the heartstrings to feel the pain, but not so much that the cords are fully pulled apart. It's a delicate balance.

That is what Avatarium has always been best at; setting the atmosphere in a way that is both soothing and off-putting. They control the darkness with aplomb. Unfortunately, they don't always paint those colors on the most captivating of songs. Yet again, that is where Avatarium leaves me wanting. The opening tracks are wonderful bits of their doom, but soon the record sets into five and six minute dirges where Jennie-Ann does not sing with enough melody to raise the buoys from sinking into the depths.

Every time Avatarium releases an album, I want to love it. I nearly did with "The Fire I Long For", but I fear that will be the high water mark of their career. Other bands with sounds I love have managed to hone it for one amazing album. Lucifer did it, as did Katatonia, and I will hold out hope Avatarium will be able to join their ranks. Few bands are as captivating as proprietors of sound, but sound is not what we are listening to. We are listening to music, which means songs, and Avatarium needs a few more great ones if they are going to be worth spending so many words on again.