SHROUDED DIVINE

"Shrouded Divine" is the debut full-length studio album by Swedish progressive death metal metal act In Mourning. The album was released through Aftermath Music in January 2008. In Mourning was formed in 2000 and released no less than 5 demos before being signed.

Stylistically the music on "Shrouded Divine" is a Scandinavian sounding melodic/progressive death metal style. At various points throughout the album I´m reminded of artists like Omnium Gatherum, Insomnium, Opeth, and Amorphis (the list goes on...). It´s heavy, often slow and doomy, but just as often mid-paced, and there are also faster-paced parts and several more atmospheric moments featured on the album. The atmosphere is at the same time epic and melancholic. The vocals vary between deep intelligible growling vocals and higher pitched aggressive snarling. The album features some clean male vocals too, but they are generally few and far between. It´s a welcome variation when they appear though.

The songwriting is solid and relatively varied, but it´s not the most original sounding music to come out of Sweden. The competition is of course also almost inhumanly hard, considering the vast number of high quality acts from that country, but I have to point out, that it is in that department "Shrouded Divine" lacks something to really compete with the most distinct sounding contemporary releases. The album fortunately features high level musicianship and a professional, clear, and powerful sounding production, so in that respect it is still a high quality release and fans of melodic/progressive death metal should find a lot to enjoy here. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.