Sideburn
Evil or Divine

Evil or Divine? That is a question asked by a band named Sideburn, we have a few Sideburn reviews already on our Hallowed webzine but this band is not behind any of those albums reviewed. This is another band with that name, a band from Stockholm, a city that happens to be the capital of our great nation. They are said to be inspired by band like Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, early Sorpions (must have missed that band), Rainbow or Candlemass. As well as newer bands like for instance Alter Bridge. If you know any of these bands I think you have a good frame of reference as to how these guys sound.

Doom metal, with some progressive touches but also with a nostalgic touch back towards the past and the seventies. A bit remnant of Black Sabbath of that era for those of you who knows that band of that vintage. It is heavy, the tempo is fairly low and the songs are varied – good vocals and I like the sound. Good production. There are seven tracks on the album and they show great variety and depth, I think that you will have to work quite hard to grow bored with this album as it has both depth and variety enough to keep the fanatic interested for a while.

I like this album; it is a very solid production with good songs and good sound. Maybe not very original or anything hence the many bands referenced and the midrange rating, it is still good to listen to even though there are some better bands in the genre and some more original ideas out there. I think fans of the genre will like this quite a bit, I think that in their best moments they are brilliant even though they are generally more of a solid and good doom metal band. Candlemass is the best band to compare them with in case you want to do such a thing but they are not massing as much in their songs. I think that the weakest point of this album is the sensation of it offering nothing we haven’t heard before which is a general problem and one that has to be remedied with excellent music and that is something these guys don’t quite manage.

Well, they do in one of the tracks. The Day the Sun Died is a perfect example of how this genre should sound at its best, too bad the rest of the album isn’t following that brilliant example which I think kicks most of the songs I have heard in this genre. Still, it is a prime example on how something cannot be stronger than its weakest link – it is a good weak link that leaves us with a good album that has one excellent track. For fans of the genre I think it is something that is well worth checking out. One question remains though, why name a doom metal band Sideburn? It just doesn’t sound very doomy.

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