Review 2565 : Avatarium – Between You, God, the Devil and the Dead – English

New album for Avatarium.

Entitled Between You, God, the Devil and the Dead, it is the sixth one for the Swedish band led by Marcus Jidell (guitar/keyboards, The Doomsday Kingdom, ex-Royal Hunt…), Jennie-Ann Smith (vocals), Mats Rydström (bass, Abramis Brama, Knights of the Realm) and Andreas Johansson (drums, Royal Hunt, The Doomsday Kingdom, ex-Narnia), and released by AFM Records.

The adventure begins between stoner fatness and luminous keyboards accompanied by choirs on Long Black Waves, a soothing, heady first track that leaves plenty of room for Jennie-Ann‘s hauntingly gentle vocals. Soaring keys and a few harmonics join the mix to give it that pared-down feel, but the thicker choruses counterbalance the quietude, which disappears again to let I See You Better In The Dark return with a powerful rhythm and Blues roots. Hard Rock influences are also present in the solo, but the mix remains fairly constant and effective before giving way to the gentle My Hair Is On Fire (But I’ll Take Your Hand) where the vocalist and keyboards first take their place. These are quickly followed by thick, imposing riffs that appear from time to time to make this one of the album’s most contrasting compositions, as evidenced by its final moments before Lovers Give A Kingdom To Each Other takes up the torch, presenting a certain catchy simplicity. There’s a hint of saturation snaking around in the background as the band explores its Progressive Rock influences, but it’s finally heard before the fire breaks out on Being With The Dead, which returns to the warm groovy sound, but also a slightly more occult atmosphere. The solo is also quite syncopated and singular, in keeping with the heaviness of the track, but we move on to Until Forever And Again, which remains in that massive and sometimes even eerie sound, thanks to the keyboards and melancholic leads. The track returns a little to the band’s origins, alternating intense passages with moments of floating, finally giving way to Notes From Underground, where other, more oriental influences color the sound. Percussion and harmonics take on warmer hues, still overshadowed by the heavy doom of this rather short instrumental, before the album ends with the eponymous Between You, God, the Devil and the Dead, a power ballad between piano and vocals, gradually joined by the other instruments for an intense finale.

Between a return to their roots and new influences, Avatarium remains one of the most diverse yet coherent projects I’ve ever heard. Everyone will find something they like on Between You, God, the Devil and the Dead, which continues along the same path as its predecessors.

80/100

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