THE COLD EXISTENCE „Sombre gates”

Country: Sweden
Genre: Melodic death/black metal
Band website: http://www.thecoldexistence.com/
Highlights: The Hellfire, Utopia
Album lenght: 56:22

I do not listen too often to such a groups, equally rarely I show any interest to this kind of music or get ‘excited’ with such thing. Well, mixture consisting of swedish melodic death metal and black metal influences just… coloquially speaking, does not get its’ job done. What can I do, THE COLD EXISTENCE even if it is cool I would not dare to call awesome. Tough luck, but why? Who knows, maybe it is because of hangover, or maybe because my brain is eaten through by metalcore…

It is not like everything on this cd is pissing me off, but there certainly are some elements which I am not going to tolerate. First of all, all those black metal impacts existing here along with typically ‘satanic’ riffs, or screams/croaks which are a connected more with Norway than with Sweden. Well, tough luck. But has to be mentioned is that Swedish formation THE COLD EXISTENCE is band which surely has a strong fanbase, had it in the past and will still have in the future, but is it really a band which will have the opportunity to became really famous? I do not think so. But I am not here to judge anything after all.

While talking about the musical matters, THE COLD EXISTENCE indeed does kick my ass really hard, there is enough melodies, many times resembling those used by ABLAZE MY SORROW, HYPOCRISY or earlier, but definitely more brutal IN FLAMES. That’s it, it all smells good, is correct but also… bland. You can accuse me of giving high rating to bands which are not really that special, but that is the characteristic feature of metalcore, while from melodic death metal bands I require something ‘more’, like in the case of my absolute favourites from SCAR SYMMETRY who give me not only the aggression, but also melody and technique.

Fast brutal tempo, blasts, dense and extended riffs, better or worser solos and high amounts of satan accurately describe the content of ‘Sombre Gates’. The truth is that for an album lasting for about an hour there is not much of this ‘more’, and to be really honest, I expected something better, what could actually satisfy my ‘core’ ego, hehe. After all I can not say that they are not correct in what they are doing, they have good playing skills, and there are also few more or less intriguing moments. It is a shame though, that there not as many of them as so to say, tracks on this cd. One last thing I want to add is that they deserve a big plus for the album cover. In my opinion this gate and burning city behind it are the exact reflection of what is happening on this cd. Death in flames, Hell, aggression and lack of hope. Really strong, correctly corrensponding cover allows me to give a half of a point more. Maybe next time it will be better? Who knows.

note: 7/10

Tracklist

1. Oracle 01:46
2. Heretic 04:21
3. Corruption 04:12
4. Purgatory 04:21
5. Ruins of Despair 04:52
6. Apocalypse 05:19
7. Spawn of Evil 03:12
8. Crawling 01:39
9. The Hellfire 04:07
10. Madness 04:24
11. Utopia 05:28
12. Seeds of Aggression 04:03
13. Forsaken 03:47
14. Wrath of Sekhmet 05:01

Line-up

Jan Sallander – Guitar, Vocals (Nox Aurea)
Robert Persson – Guitar (Nox Aurea)
Peter Laustsen – Bass (Nox Aurea)
Joakim Antonsson – Drums (Altar of Sacrifice)
Thomas Backelin – Guitar (Lord Belial, Demarcon, Satanized, Snakestate)