Undecimber“Undecimber or Undecember is a name for a thirteenth month in a calender that normally has twelve months”. Thanks Wikipedia, that’s cleared that one up – but what of the band?

“Undecimber is a Swedish Gothic/Dark Metal band that should appeal to fans of anyone from Sentenced or Charon to Paradise Lost or Type O Negative”. That wasn’t Wikipedia – that was me, but feel free to bung it on there.

And they really are Gothic Metal in the original late 90’s sense, when Nightwish were but a twinkle in Tuomas’s ego, Sentenced were breaking in a new singer and two of the biggest influences of the genre were Sisters Of Mercy and Paradise Lost. So many bands with male singers cropped up at this time only to be seemingly overshadowed by the more polished female-fronted acts. Only a handful held their own (so to speak…) – the aforementioned Sentenced, Charon and To/Die/For spring to mind and there are elements of those three bands throughout “Dead Inside”(especially in opener ‘Three Pages From Hell’, ‘War Hero’ and ‘Tears Of The Past’). There’s some Sisters too of course, but from the more evident Metal end there are traces of 69 Eyes (‘Dead Angel’), Danse Macabre (‘Wait In The Dark’) and Evereve (‘Solitude’). ‘Fatal Kiss’ massively reminds me of Lost In Tears, which as a band is probably Undecimber’s closest overall comparison…but seeing as hardly anyone has ever heard of them it’s probably a little academic to mention them. But I mentioned them anyway…cos I can…

The vocals in most songs have that Sister’s Gothic phrasing but though always in the lower register aren’t quite typically Gothic or Dark Metal. Kind of like a Classic Heavy Metal or Stoner Metal vocalist singing low – like he might be holding back a little. The music has nice little touches of Electronica, piano and the odd well placed sample, but generally the sound stays well within the Metal parameters.

If I’m being brutally honest, nothing particularly leapt out song-wise for me on the first two or three listens, which was rather disconcerting because Undecimber have all the Dark/Gothic elements I really like in this style of band, so for a test I put it on shuffle mixed in with a few other CDs I’d heard only a couple of times, and sure enough I thoroughly enjoyed each Undecimber track that popped up. It’s just that as an entire album I think the band might just need to mix it up a bit more, both vocally and tempo-wise. There are great moments on the CD but if you get distracted they can be easily missed and fade into the background. And there is way too much talent on offer in this band for that to happen. Maybe the production could be a little crisper, be a bit bigger in the drum department (to highlight the tempo shifts?) and perhaps have crunchier guitars…or maybe I’m just being too critical (do I sit here perusing my own Record Contract? No I don’t!).

I really hope the band continues to grow as this is only their second CD and there is definitely enough on offer here for me and any other fan of this style to want to check out their debut and whatever they produce after this one.

(7/10  Andy Barker)

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