Review Summary: The best Mission UK album a metal band ever made
Once upon a time, the members of the Swedish heavy metal band In Solitude participated in a marathon listening session of the back catalogues of The Sisters of Mercy and The Mission UK, possibly supplemented by smoking the most peculiar weed and drinking the finest absinthe in a log cabin located in some forsaken snow-covered northern forest. Not long afterward, they entered the recording studio and recorded their latest album, Sister. The resulting document is exactly what you would expect.
Sister is, unfortunately, a pedestrian effort in mixing classic metal with 1980s goth rock; mainly the most basic elements of the two artists already listed, and not much else. At times, the goth influence is so strong that it borders on plagiarism, and when the band isn’t aping Wayne Hussey and his cohorts, they sound hollow and without an identity. Since In Solitude didn’t do anything too interesting in their mixture of these two genres, it’s a wonder as to what they were trying to achieve on this record. While it’s fairly easy to tell apart In Solitude from the crowd in metal today with their retro sound, relatively low-gain guitar crunch and spooky vocals, it’s hard to pin down what exactly In Solitude “sounds” like on Sister, or rather, what makes them distinct amidst all the tributes they pay on this album. The guitar tone recalls ‘70s Judas Priest, the vocals sound like Wayne Hussey, and the riffs are lifted directly from classic metal and goth in equal measure, so what is it that makes In Solitude “In Solitude”? That is the question.
One thing that weakens this album a tad is that the riffing on display here isn’t as strong as on the band’s previous efforts, and the lead work isn’t nearly as impressive as before. When the band is playing homage to goth (which is most of the time), the appropriately minimalistic and melodic approach they take gets the job done, but their style is in no way distinct from the approaches taken from the goth bands that influenced this album so heavily. While In Solitude excelled at guitar leads on albums like The World, The Flesh, The Devil, the leads on display here fail to reach the level of thrill that one would expect from a heavy metal guitar solo. But amidst all the cons apparent on this release, there are a handful of positives worth noting. The band gives off a convincingly creepy, Halloween type atmosphere with much success, whether it be through the minor key melodies they employ or through vocalist Pelle Ahman’s powerful baritone howling. The band knows how to effectively craft a sound that is both grand and cinematic without relying too much on drama, and the level of sonic darkness is set to an almost perfect level. Among the few standout moments on Sister include the crushing, bare-bones riff that comes in halfway through “A Buried Sun”, as well as the galloping “Horses in the Ground” – one of the album’s more “metal” tracks - which got this reviewer’s head banging like a madman. The eight minute closing track “Inmost Nigredo” is Sister’s darkest and most brooding statement with some tasty tremolo picked black metal-inspired lead lines to garnish the gloom. While it doesn’t redeem the album by any means, it is a nice touch.
In Solitude’s newfound love for goth music has unfortunately manifested itself into an album that is devoid of any distinction from its influences. It tried to be a successful union of two mostly unrelated genres but, instead, comes across as a goth music tribute with a metallic varnish. It will be interesting to see what In Solitude achieves with this genre blending on future releases assuming that they continue down this path, but until then we have a decent album to hold us over while we await the future of goth and metal’s union.
