Soulburner

Gardenian

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 25, 2000)
• Original Release Date: January 25, 2000
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Nuclear Blast Americ
• ASIN: B0000259S8
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #138,943 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Sophomore release from black/thrash/death metal act featuring guitarist Nicklas Engelin (In Flames). Artch vocalist Eric Hawk guests on 6 of the 11 tracks. 1999 release. Standard jewel case.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Soulburner, Gardenian, August 15, 2000

By	rett burroughs (West Point, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This CD is one of the best European releases in the Death Metal Genre. The guitars and vocals mix very well and I find myself rockin out every time I listen to this CD. If you like In Flames, Therion, or Six Feet Under, you must check this CD out.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Pretty damn good!, March 28, 2003

By	Sergio Morales (Levittown, NY United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is the first record I've purchased from Gardenian and I actually got it for free during a free CD givaway from a local radio station. All the CD's they had there were pretty much low budget trash so I figured this wouldn't be any different. Needless to say I was wrong. This would best be put under the catagory of Melodic Death Metal, although it isn't as hard hitting as usual Cannibal Corpse/early Fear Factory Death metal, but still pretty hard on some songs. Sweden seems to just spit out great metal bands such as this one, Opeth and In Flames.
The record opens great with "As a True King," a fast,hard hitting song with a great chorus. It continues this with track 2 and 3. At track 4 "Soulburner" is where the disk starts to not be as good, it just tends to slow down its fast pace. That and track 5 are OK, but I would just end up hitting the skip button. Then comes track 6 "Small Electric Space" which I can't stand hearing. It picks itself back up with the hard hitting track 7 "Chaos", 8-"Ecstacy of life", 9-"Tell the World I'm sorry", and 11-"Black Days" (A great song, probably the best on the album). All track 7,8,9, and 11 are great fast paced, hard songs with great growling vocals mixed with melodic ones too.
My main gripe with this album is mostly with the lead singers voice. Given he's got an amazing growl voice, I can't stand to hear his melodic voice more then a few seconds. During certain chorus's like that of Track 3 are good, but the reason I couldn't stand 6-"small electric space" is because he sings melodically during the whole song. He does have a good voice in general, but he sounds like an actor that just came off a New York Broadway musical. The voice is just, well, fruity to really grab my attention without making me want to hit the skip button. It's not a strong melodic voice; it's good but still weak.
Besides these few songs I didn't care for on this record I was very surprised it was this good. Sure, it isn't a classic by any means but it's definitly a lot of fun to pop in the CD player and listen to, I would definitely recommend this album to any fan of melodic or swedish death metal.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Nothing special but melo-death fans will like it, November 5, 2002

By	Chris 'raging bill' Burton (either Kent or Manchester, United Kingdom) - See all my reviews

At a first glance it would be easy to lump Gardenian with At The Gates, Soilwork, The Haunted or any other melodic death metal band from Gothenburg. The typical sound, the typical melodies, the typical vocals. But take a deeper listen and they are actually putting out material with more variety and innovation. OK, so they're nowhere near Opeth, Amorphis, In Flames or to a lesser extent Children Of Bodom in terms of originality, but they incorporate lots of clean (and female) vocals, a variety of tempos and heaviness, quiet moments and a degree of subtlety. Take Small Electric Space for example. This song has no death metal vocals at all, and is a brilliant song with great melodies but also a dose of aggression. Not that Gardenian can't rock when they want to. One listen to the blistering opener As A True King can confirm that.

Although it is fair to say that in the general running of the Swedish melodic death metal scene Gardenian are yet to find their own sound, what they do with that sound is considerably more varied and innovative than most other Gothenburg style metal bands that I've heard. If you want something innovative then I recommend Follow The Reaper by Children Of Bodom or Orchid by Opeth. If you want something very heavy all the way through then check out Whisper Supremacy by Cryptopsy or Close To A World Below by Immolation. It is certainly fair to say that if you've heard it all before then you could give it a miss, but if you are put off by incredibly heavy music or feel that you do not have much patience and you prefer just to get to the meat of the sandwich (in a musical sense of course!), then Soulburner is a worthy enough addition to your collection.