The 11th Hour – Burden Of Grief (2009)

The 11th Hour is a new project formed by Ed Warby from Gorefest and Ayreon fame, in this recording he played ALL instruments and even clean vocals, and ‘growls’ where provided by none other than Rogga Johanson. So all of this looks great on paper and it sounds pretty good except for one little detail: The god awful clean vocals, they make my want to rip my hairs out.

Musically the band is top notch since they manage to mix Death/Doom Metal with more traditional Doom metal to perfection, and it would have worked perfectly if they had gotten a better clean singer. Ed Warby is a great musician but in my opinion he’s better off without singing. The clean vocals are not out of tune, or anything terrible, it’s just the sound they have I find it extremely annoying for this music and they ruin the ‘other half’ of the (guttural) vocals provided by Rogga.

“Burden Of Grief” is a pretty solid album and it features amazing Doom riffs, also the whole mood of the music is right on the spot. All songs are very well written and all instruments go perfectly with each other, if the clean vocals track was turned off I would gladly put this album on my top 10 doom metal albums this year, but unfortunately they are not.

The keyboard work is one of my favorite things and the switching from atmospheric sections to piano sections is very well done and I completely enjoy it. Rogga’s vocals are brutal as always and the band reminds me of Mourning Beloved when it’s only music and growls. I like that this album is not trying to be too much of a Funeral Doom album, but you can clearly see the influences here and there.

If you are a Doom Metal fan, you should give this album a chance and head to their myspace to listen if you can stand the clean vocals, because if you can, then you will worship this release. But on the other hand, if you are easily annoyed by the clean vocals, then there is not mid point here, since the whole mood of the album gets ruined by them (at least for me)

Release: November 3rd, 2009

Country: Netherlands