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GRAVEWORM ‘(N) Utopia’ Nuclear Blast (2005)
The prospect of getting introduced to the music of a 'new' band is what makes all those long nights in front of my PC, writing reviews for the albums that I have quite recently discovered, worthwhile.
I think that it’s really important to mention that it is not that often that I am left totally unimpressed by the work of a band, and unfortunately that’s exactly what happened with Graveworm’s fifth studio album '(N) Utopia'.
The Italian quintet has been around since 1998, but I have never managed to listen to any of their albums before '(N) Utopia' (the same old story). Graveworm’s music is a mixture of melodic Black Metal (Cradle of Filth, Dimmu Borgir) with Dark/Goth Metal (Crematory, Lake of Tears), something that sounded quite promising to me, since I respect all bands who choose to experiment with their music. What is wrong then – why is this album not to my liking?
Could it be the production? No, definitely not. Andy Classen (Dew Scented, Die Apokalyptischen Reiter) has made a pretty good job. The sound is strong and all the musicians were given equal chances to prove themselves to both me and the fans of this style of music. What then?
I realised what the problem was, right after I listened the whole album for the fifth time. There was not a single song on this nine track album that managed to really hook me (maybe with the exception of 'Timeless', but I still haven’t decided that), and that’s possibly far worse for an album than a bad production or a badly made guitar solo. I believe that in their attempt to create an album that will satisfy the masses, Graveworm forgot the most important thing: that music should be written from the heart!
I am pretty sure that there are many of you out there who will totally disagree with my impression of the album. I have already read many reviews on the internet that present '(N) Utopia' as a masterpiece…well, I will once again say that you should never take under consideration the grades that people who work in magazines and e-zines (myself included) give to albums.
If you are fans of this specific style of music, try to get hold of this album from a friend, or listen to it from the music booth of your local record store and judge for yourselves. As for me, I think that I will stick with the last Agathodaimon album...
Review by John Stefanis
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