Semlah - Semlah (Cyclone Empire Records )
By Chris Barnes
May 17th 2009
About a half hour ago, we had a 5.0 rumbler roll through Southern California. I’ve lived here all my life, but nothing prepares you for the earth shaking beneath your feet. You have no control whatsoever, total helplessness. Now that, my friend, is Doom. Could it have been a result of the loosening of the local tectonic plates below Castle Hellride due to the immense frequencies uttered full blast out of my speakers of Semlah’s leather lunged Johan “Joleni” Nilsson?! No, that would be corny and silly of course, but there was only a five minute delay between the ending of
Semlah and the quake which would lead one less skeptical to perhaps make some sort of correlation. If I were a believer, I would say that Semlah’s first recording in a good five years is definitely making the demons dance below Redondo Beach, CA. And they are making a helluva racket!!
Semlah made a tremendous impact on me with 2001’s self-distributed
Ruin . Back then, Semlah was a rough-hewn bastard child of Uriah Heep, Saint Vitus and UFO with a singer that was either a dead-ringer for Ian Gillan/Byron/Moog depending on what mood and register he was in. The only thing that has changed with 2009’s
Semlah is that the production values have stepped up several notches. The 8 minute opus of “Axioms of Life” is a good example. The number starts off mid-tempo with Tommy “Wilbur” Eriksson’s bass (yep, the man from Count Raven!) and Johannes Bergh’s drums in lock step until guitarist Tomas Johnson kicks in with a teeth-rattling doom riff and Joleni joining in soon after with his plaintive wail. Around 3:10, Joleni’s voice trails off, the tempo slows and the song starts chuggin’ hard for the uphill climb ascent on Mount Doom – what a killer interlude here. A subtle orchestration begins that echoes the riff, creating an atmosphere of epic foreboding. A muted E-string starts slowly, building momentum, with Joleni and band finishing off for a monumental climax of Swedish Power Doom.
There are two key songs which anchor the other eight – the majestic, multi-faceted “Perennial Movement III” and the hauntingly beautiful “Perennial Movement II”. The first tempts the listener to let down his/her guard with an acoustic intro which ends suddenly at 1:50 for another earth-crushing riff from Johnson. The song moves on with surges of power, Joleni really getting into the vocals here and letting loose one of his Gillian-esque wails at the very end. “Perennial Movement II” is another powerful track, done primarily with acoustic guitar and showcasing Nilsson’s voice which takes on a Geoff Tate hue here. Both songs bookcase the lead-heavy, mid-tempo “Machination”. Played at full volume, you can hear demon necks snapping beneath your feel. “My Spirits Fail” is another one worth mentioning because it gives hint to the powerful rhythmic combo of Eriksson and Bergh (‘bout time to give the drummer and bass guy some!). “Havoc” is an epic closer, which proudly features what could be the doom metal equivalent of an Iron Maiden chant-along.
Another great recording from Semlah, one that we had to wait a bit for but all the better to build up anticipation. I had heard that Joleni was in some sort of accident that took a bit of rehabilitation, perhaps that is part of the delay on this album, hope he has recovered fully. Now’s not the time to stop - with the kind of creative momentum evident on
Semlah, we can only hope that the guys get together to record more material. A nice evening would be this recording followed by Forsaken’s “After The Fall” – these two definitely complement each other.
Purchase Semlah and Suffering in Silence at the Hellride Music Superstore
Listen to a MP3 of Path Of A Waning Moon
Read the Hellride reviews of Suffering In Silence and Ruin
Visit Semlah website at www.myspace.com/semlah
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