'Black Vanity' is a musical equivalent to late autumn times, when nature's colours have been washed away by chilling rain and wind, except for some brown and dark green ones, with shroud of grey covering everything. Seems like everything has entered sleep or dying. It seems hopeless. It feels hopeless. It does not sound hopeless, though. This is music for those autumn times, or any time one is feeling sombre.

'Black Vanity' is the third full-length album from this Swedish band, who began as a death metal one. Tiamat, Therion, Edge Of Sanity... It was nothing new for a Swedish death metal band to turn into something else. Or progress, more like, as it happened in Cemetary's case, because the evolution trajectory is clear. They had their own kind of melodiousness, partly inspired by Swedish, partly by English gothic/doom/death metal bands (mostly it's Paradise Lost, or at least on this release it is them), and that's why they stand up from the crowd.

'Bitter Seed' is Cemetary's 'As I Die' if you ask me. This rocking and groovy gothic and doomy affair is similarly upbeat being mid-paced, but upbeat in Cemetary's case, with highly adhesive melodiousness. Things slow down with 'Ebony Rain', and the song is more surprising, ending up being like a mini epic. Here, the band play with effected instruments, and loads of different woeful melodies. Beautiful acoustic guitar opens the next song, and the band also get to introduce true doom riffing in the game; the song mixes sorrowful bits with kicking, Cathedral-esque rocking heavy metaling doom of 'The Ethereal Mirror' (1993). The band were so versatile here, but alas, they lost this venturesomeness later on... Okay, it may not be totally airtight at some wilder style hopping, but damn, it is entertaining!

'Black Flowers of Passion' is a gothic horror piece in the middle. Freezing wind effect, perverted religious spoken vocals and synthesizer work with amazing acoustic guitar simply deepens the previous sentence into new level of oblivion. I'm happy with them catchy 'As I Die' style dark rockers ('Scarecrow' and especially 'Sweet Tragedy') and more doomy takes that also follow. The closer has a bit softer, smokier touch, bringing Lake Of Tears to my mind. Each song is memorable, characteristic and hardly dragging. The first half of 1990s was interesting, imaginative and illustrous era for dark metal music, and Cemetary were there with some goodies to offer, as this album demonstrates. This is Cemetary's 'Icon' (the iconic Paradise Lost album from 1993). This is timeless.

The production is a bit weird. In a way it is good: It is not clogged and it is pretty clear. It certainly is not very heavy on the low end, kind of floating in mid-ranges. The rhythm guitar is in-your-face, while the lead work in echoing (leads and solos are soulful!), and there's no shortage of various effects, creating different atmospheres throughout the album. The vocals are also varying. The main vocals of main man Mathias Lodmalm (also on guitar) are hoarse throat voice singing, even hitting the notes at times, a tad like Ville Laihiala of Sentenced. Another voice is clean and more fragile, if not that much as e.g. Anathema had, but maybe in vein of Lake Of Tears. There are many spoken voices and additional female vocals, which aren't angelic at all, but joyless in both good and bad meaning of the word. Adorned with eerie and obscure cover artwork by Dave McKean (no wonder he worked with Neil Gaiman), the lyrical content is similar and very much cryptic.

Cemetary did not manage to resonate with me after this album; the next one, 1996's 'Sundown' was very decent, but the music got more and more straight and branched in to Cemetary 1213 and more goth-rocking Sundown, making me baffled. Anyway, both of them now left in the past and Cemetary being re-activated earlier this year, I truly wish Mr. Lodmalm have found the dark spark for it all again with the new album which has been completed already. 'Black Vanity' style is more than welcome again, if you ask me, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

Pick up this for autumn to get drowned under fallen leaves...

Rating: 9+ (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
10/22/2021 21:20