Isole - Bliss of Solitude

Sweden’s Isole third album and first for Austria’s Napalm Records grants us with a sorrowful Doom Metal sound that nods at My Dying Bride and Solitude Aeturnus in equal measures. What else would you honestly expect from a band named Isole and with a record entitled “Bliss of Solitude” featuring songs that clock at a minimum length of six minutes exporting titles like “Imprisoned in Sorrow” and “Dying”? Its Doom Metal with an epic flavour that lies somewhere between the mournful, slow-driven riffs of UK doomsters My Dying Bride and the haunting melodies of US Solitude Aeturnus, especially in the vocal department as vocalist Daniel Bryntse sounds like a gloomier Robert Lowe. A song like the sublime “From Clouded Sky” particularly echoes memories of the aforementioned bands, but without ever reaching levels of plagiarism. Elsewhere the Swedish quartet displays some intrinsic characteristics that add texture and interest to the songs like acoustic interludes, gentle leads and desolated chants like on the title theme and the closing “Shadowstone”.
“Bliss of Solitude” is miserable and dark like any true Doom Metal record should be, the perfect companionship to those lonely, freezing nights. (7/10)

Band info: www.forevermore.se
Label info: www.napalmrecords.com