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Withering-Gospel of Madness

Artist   : Withering
Album    : Gospel of Madness
Label    : Firebox Records
Year     : 2004

Genre    : Death Metal         Source   : CDDA
Encoder  : FLAC 1.2.1          Bitrate  : 1041kbps
Playtime : 51:23 min           Size     : 382,77 MB

Tracks:

01   Northern Breeze                            05:10
02   Quarrelsome                                04:25
03   On Death's Colour                          05:05
04   Two Suns                                   05:01
05   Reborn                                     04:16
06   Mausoleum                                  03:51
07   Penance                                    05:11
08   The Feeble Morning                         03:10
09   Anguish of Frustration                     04:30
10   Justification for Unavoidable              05:56
11   Not Yet the Last                           04:48

Notes:

Normally we only get the tempos slow and veeery
slooow from Firebox. All the more surprised I had
been, when the info sheet of WITHERING’s debut
“Gospel Of Madness“ said “Death Metal”. The Finns
did not suddenly discover speed? OK, the CD was
released via the banner Warhorse, maybe another
sign?

But I can calm down all Speed allergics, the guys
from the high north do play Death Metal, but they do
not have any intentions to get fast, rather the
bands that they had been playing cover versions of
in their beginnings still shine through in their own
songs: AMORPHIS, PARADISE LOST and SENTENCED. But
you shouldn’t make the mistake to stamp WITHERING as
copy of these bands, because they have more on offer
than just that.

One important factor in the sound of Raimo
Crazyhorse, Henkka, M.Korhonen and Ville (why is it
that Finns so often have problems putting their
normal names into the booklet?) are the leads of
master Korhonen, which take the reign in almost
every song and do a more than adequate job. From the
opener “Northern Breeze” on it becomes pretty clear
that they leave the usual stereotypes behind them,
rather slow paced (but not Doom/Death), with quite
original sounding lead guitars, followed by the a
bit faster “Quarrelsome”, which reminds me of
PARADISE LOST in the six strings.

With “On Death’s Colour“ WITHERING then already have
their first real hit, with acoustical start, then
continuing pretty sluggish, with very distinct,
great, somehow Finnish sounding leads, if Raimo
didn’t have such a rough organ, they would be a
candidate for the masses! Also on “Reborn” PARADISE
LOST (“Icon”/”Draconian Times”) shine through, while
on “Penance” again very Finnish sounding lead
guitars reign and with all melody here and there
also increase the tempo.

Speaking of tempo, “Anguish Of Frustration“ is the
big exception on “Gospel Of Madness“, because here
WITHERING, supported by higher Death vocals, unpack
the faster Death Metal rhythm. But with the
following, again very strong, “Justification For
Unavoidable“ they return to their own style, slow-
paced, melodic, with strong lead guitars.

Surely the Finns are not too original, but nicely
differ from most of their genre colleagues and show
that there is Death Metal this side of Florida and
Gothenburg and as PARADISE LOST had lost their
original style a while ago, WITHERING have their
reason to be, I really like “Gospel Of madess” in
any way.

http://www.metal-observer.com/articles.php?id=6213

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