Burden of Grief is a concept album about a man dying from a terminal lung disease and his last few hours alive. Cheerful stuff and for the most part the music is a supremely heavy take on the Candlemass / Solitude Aeturnus school of doom. There are some seriously heavy riffs on offer, Warby does a commendable job with the song writing and his clean vocals and Johansson steps in with his growls to add to the heaviness while never overdoing things.

The album starts with the immense combination of One Last Smoke and In the Silent Grave. Both songs crawl along with Warby’s impressive clean vocals and Johansson’s super deep growls complementing each other superbly. The riffs are heavy as fuck and at times thick enough to create an impenetrable wall of sound while always making sure there’s a melody to latch on to. Origins of Mourning has some keyboards and a quiet middle section to break the constant heaviness and then a superb melodic riff that is drenched in melancholy and sounds like old Paradise Lost. Atonement ups the tempo just a fraction and has some haunting keyboard work in the background with Johansson’s growls taking centre stage. Longing for Oblivion closes the album out with some more melodic classic doom and understated use of the keyboards.

Warby sounds great and his song writing skills are top notch, his solos are elegant and always well thought out, the riffs are massive and every song on this album has the perfect mix of melody, melancholic atmosphere and heaviness. Johansson’s growls are also used superbly through these six songs often adding to the weight of an already heavy riff.

I can’t find much to fault with Burden of Grief. Yes, Warby isn’t doing anything particularly original and is content to stay within established doom metal templates but when the quality of songwriting is this good I really see no reason for complaint. This is an essential album for anybody even remotely into the doom metal genre.

Label - Napalm Records

Year of Release - 2009