### In Solitude: Sister

#### 02/10/13 || Ironpants

“Hey sister, go sister, soul sister, go sister”

In Solitude has been spreading their dark and occult heavy metal a couple of years now, and are gaining more and more interest around the globe. This album, “Sister”, has been hyped up quite a bit, and with them signing up to the mighty Metal Blade Records roster, things are looking pretty bright, or dark maybe? The light is nowhere to be found here, so dark is the preferred color, in a positive way.

In Solitude´s earlier efforts has paid a lot of homage to Mercyful Fate and also Iron Maiden, and their last album “The world. The Flesh. The devil” was kind of a divider. How long can you take that routine before being accused for plagiarism? Not any further apparently, cause they have steered their dark ways in another direction with this one. Gone are the most obvious Mercyful Fate vibes and out of the cocoon flies a big beautiful dark butterfly.

I´m gonna be honest with you (and the band), and tell you straight away, I have rather big problems with Åhmans singing. It don’t really hit me with awe, and sometimes I find myself almost annoyed by it. On the last album he had that touch of King Diamond that made it pass and also made it acceptable. On “Sister” he has altered it a bit, and are now presenting an eerier, spooky voice. Just listen to the song “A buried sun”, where his voice lingers like some ghost over the music with an oscillating vibrato. With that said, I guess it´s up to you and depending on your own personal taste if you like it or not, it is his sound, and a big part of the total picture.

The thing that strikes me most, and also acts as a pillar for the whole band, is the guitars. The guitar players have a tendency to squirt out exceptional riffs that are almost inverted or backwards in structure? This technique is used in many of the songs, and makes them interesting, and also give them a solid hook that can keep you awake at night, leave you rolling in your bed with that semi-corny riff repeating itself over and over again. Good examples of this is the songs “Death knows where” and “Lavender”, but they use it in almost every song. With great success I should add.

Another strength is that even if they aren’t playing the hardest shit around, they manage to produce an atmosphere that is dark, eerie and almost unpleasant. I don’t know if I choose the best words to describe it here, but there is a constant feeling of premeditated darkness and malicious intent in the background.

The last track, “Inmost nigredo” is an eight minute piece with a guest on guitar, namely Pelle Forsberg of Watain, and the track is a magnificent finale to this dark journey. And this also explains a little on what In Solitude is all about. I know that they have a connection with Watain and they are going on tour with them and Tribulation. That is a pretty massive entourage of Swedish blackness right there for you to devour if you get the chance.

To summarize: This is a pretty good album, no better yet, it is darn good. But if you had problem with the vocals before, you´ll be having a harder time with this album. I dare to say though, that this is an album that will be their real breakthrough in all fields, and people will praise this one, and it will receive top placements on many “Album of the year”-lists. Not on mine though, but I can calmly say that they have done a real good effort of changing their style from a homage band, to an artistic and interesting band that will have me keeping a lookout for them and what they are up to in the future. Interesting, artistic, dark – there´s a three word review for you.

- Information
- Released: 2013
- Label: Metal Blade
- Website: In Solitude Facebook
- Band
- Pelle Åhman: vocals
- Niklas Lindström: guitars
- Henrik Palm: guitars
- Gottfrid Åhman: bass
- Uno Bruniusson: drums

- Tracklist
- 01. He comes
- 02. Death knows where
- 03. Pallid hands
- 04. A buried sun
- 05. Lavender
- 06. Sister
- 07. Horses in the ground
- 08. Inmost nigredo