SEVENTH ANGEL – Lament For The Weary [Reissue]

As was mentioned, in the last review of Seventh Angel, here is part two of the review and now their second album, under Metal Mind Records’ reissuing processes, Lament For The Weary will receive special coverage of its own. For starters, this release is, yet to be the band’s foremost effort, since they reunited and went back on the road to write future material and maybe will surprise you headbangers.

Originally, the album was released somewhere in 1992 under the label Under One Flag / Edge Records, its mixing and mastering were finished near the end of 1991. Before this release, the band went through a small change; Simon Jones replaced the bass player, Simon Bibby. After the band’s reunion, this year, Bibby returned to the band as one of its guitarists.

With this release, the band had taken an important step forward with a few changes. The first one is its production. Unlike the first production, different producers, Roy Rowland and Steve Rispin, managed this release. In addition, the band recorded in a different place, which was at ICC Studios, Eastbourne. Rowland, as the main producer, took the tools that were used to create the first release and enhanced them to a higher level of quality. The guitars, while remaining dirtier like on The Torment, are more powerful and crunchier. Another addition to the guitars was the great sound given and marked for the enchanting solos with loads of treble and reverb. The bass guitar is more noticeable than ever, the drums sound a lot better than 2 years before and they are as one with the others.

Seventh Angel is really on the offensive with this release. While the Doom Metal factor all around the album is even mightier than in The Torment, the combination of both Thrash Metal, and the former elements, is much better than before, enabling the Thrash factor to receive a lot of influence. The music is more straightforward with lots of attacking verses á la Slayer. However, with the speed and power, the band added well-crafted acoustic and melodic verses that show the listener a thing or two about true classical Doom Metal like Candlemass and even the early music of Paradise Lost.

The best examples for this great work are tracks like “Falling Away From Reality”, “Woken By Silence” and “Farewell To Human Cries”. These tracks, unlike others here, possess some great shifts in the music that will keep some of you captivated by it also offers a much heavier dose of Thrash / Doom Metal main riffs. Lets just say that this album will sit well with all of you Doomers out there as well.

Lament For The Weary offers another awesome treat which is a small load of instrumental tracks. “Lament For The Weary”, “Recollections Of A Life Once Lived” and “Passing Of The Years”, will unleash your imagination to different places. These tracks are that heavy, except for “Passing Of The Years”, which is the strongest among the three, yet they actually meant to channel a lot more than just the music, they tell stories without even having lyrics. Just from their names, one can try to guess what they are all about.

While cruising through the lyrics, you can also find that the band went through another change and it’s the change of themes. As a Christian Metal act, this release is much less about Christianity and its peers. This one is more about sorrow, suicide and depression. Even from the first instrumental track, one can see, not exactly hear, that sorrow reigns around this domain. “Life On All Its Emptiness” tells the same tale, it talks about loneliness and the lost will to live. “No Longer A Child” is a strong and emotional song about child rape and abuse. This song involves a desperate call for God’s help, which is unanswered. “Woken By Silence” rides through the same theme with a desperate cry of man to God for salvation. “Falling Away From Reality” talks about the will to die but with the sense to try and overcome the urge to keep hope up. “Secure In Eternity” raises the Christian theme again with words of the ending of life and elevation to Heaven by Christ. The closing song keeps up the same theme with the gospel of Christ.

Under Metal Mind Records the listener also receives a small bonus. The closing track, “The Turning Tide” is a demo, which was never released. This track is very nice but it’s still not close to the finesse of this album.

As for the band members, there is also a change, but at a slightly low level. The vocalist / guitarist keeps up the good work in the vocals section. This time he elevated his vocals’ quality. He sings in a more clean voice than in the previous release, where he sounded almost like a semi-growler. In this release, he sounds like another mix: A rougher Matt Barlow of Iced Earth plus Nevermore’s front man, Warrel Dane and Tom Araya of Slayer. His ability in this album can rate him with the top line of Thrash vocalists. As a guitarist, both he and his fellow axeman, Scott Rawson, are doing an excellent job with amazing leads and solo sections like in “Falling Away From Reality” and “Farewell To Human Cries”. In addition, they play with a rougher approach that contains heavier riffs that they perform with finesse. The new bass player on this release, Simon Jones, is much more dominant than his predecessor, but still he is not doing anything special, only just following the rhythm and giving it a boost.

Lament For The Weary is a larger selection of good songs to pick from than its predecessor, The Torment. Although the album’s second track, “Life In All Of Its Emptiness” is not that good along the follower, “No Longer A Child” and “Full Of Blackness “ is just a solid track, a positive change occurs. From “Lament For The Weary” till the demo track, “The Turning Tide”, the album is absolutely astonishing with great amazing riffs, awesome vocals and solos and acoustic verses that will make one even cry. The best of them are two tracks, “Falling Away From Reality” and the finisher, “Farewell To Human Cries”. Both are rough, crushing, yet melodic with some soft spots.

Today, Seventh Angel is working on their new release since their return to the Metal world as a part of a rising fashion of comebacks by many old bands. Maybe they have come to show the young ones how to make good music, only their release will tell if they can really teach and show their heritage. Seventh Angel’s albums serve as a fundamental legacy for good music, may their new release turn out to take its place with their first works.