A WAYFARER'S TEARS

Godsend's last album marks another fraternization between Norway and Sweden. Fronted by Dan Swanö's clean warm baritone, it is a strange hodgepodge of an album, mixing re-recordings of earlier tracks, new doom-rock songs, and a progressive middle section that begins with the brooding Eidolon and reaches its high point with the 22 minute song cycle A Wayfarer's Tale.

Slaydream was a strong track from As The Shadow Falls. It gets a slightly heavier treat here but it's no improvement as it lost much of its groove and vintage doom charm. Silence of Time is a slowly plodding doom beast, not bad but not very original nor memorable. Delusions of Grandure, Sermon and Galactic Galleon are all upbeat doom-rockers that wouldn't sound much out of place on a Dio-fronted Black Sabbath album.

But with Eidolon the album takes an entirely different turn. Away from pure doom, it comes close to the Gothic rock of the first two Nightingale albums. At least where it concerns atmosphere, the music is slightly more Doom then Goth, but only purists will care about that. It features proggy keyboards at the end and almost serves as an intro for the progressive focal point of the album, a 5-part song suite with clean guitar picking, melodious vocals, symphonic keyboards and lots of doom power. It kind of sounds like Sisters of Mercy caught in the middle of a proggy identity crisis leading into a particularly nasty depression.

The closing murky doom plod of Silence of Time can't shed any further light on this schizophrenic album. I rather like some parts of it but it's not that good really. 2.5 stars