You can hardly say that Swedish retro/stoner/doom hardrockers Egonaut offer anything new to the world of metal, but their new release is nevertheless a decent effort – however not perfect.
Starting out very elegantly with the flaws of ‘Deluminati’, the greatest of these is, in my humble opinion, Fredrik Jordanius’ vocal performance. It puts me off at times. Jordanius is attempting to do things he doesn’t have the range to do, and that is a shame. He’s no Dio or Messiah Marcolin, but it seems as if he’s not accepting that fact. There is only one song where I can say that he does something that really works well; Hex. This is where Jordanius combines growl (which he does really well) with a Tony Martin kind of style. That said, I’m not sure if he actually does the growling, but nevermind – it works and for me, this is the best and darkest song of the album.
Apart from that, this is a really good album, although not groundbreaking in this day and age where retro seems to be what everyone does. This is doomy hardrock, Sabbath stuff with a good slap of Deep Purple Hammond organ to ensure that 70s touch. The songs are good craftmanship and for the most part solid rockers, most notably The Declaration, Threescore Ten, Acheron and the beforementioned Hex, but there’s also room for the slower, doomier pieces like closing ditty Waypoints.
On the whole a good one, but why not go for the growl full time and make this REALLY worthwhile, eh?
Tracklist:
1. The Declaration
2. From The Coals
3. Pariah
4. The Beholder
5. Iustitia Infernalis
6. Hex
7. Threescore And Ten
8. Acheron
9. Waypoints
Playing time: 47 minutes
Release date: 28th of August, 2015
Label: Mighty Music
Website: www.egonaut.se
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