Sombre Arcane

• Groupe : Lifelover
• Genre : Depressive Rock/Pop/Black Metal
• Album : Pulver
• Year : 2006
• Origin : Sweden
• Label : GoatowaRex
• Note : 18/20

What a shock! It’s the first gift to my girlfriend that pops her eyes right out of her head! It is not hyperbolic to state that this material can rightfully claim to have turned the crushing powers of a claustrophobic tunnel beneath the ground into music.

Before everything, you may need to be in a very specific frame of mind to fully enjoy this, but that's precisely the key to the album's essence: Lifelover hits the ground running with an impressive array of slow Depressive Rock and crushing Black Metal atmosphere with some Pop layers. A very varied record, Pulver frequently alternates between soft passages and stronger ones. They were able to do this again without really repeating the formula of their debut too much, as the music itself includes plenty of new elements and details. Songs, here, tend toward the tranquil side of things, though some more stirring interludes are also mustered as well as some more crazy chapters.

In a very general sense, Malefic or Wrest are exploring remotely similar cold territory while coming from totally different angles, but neither of them has been avoiding the cheese-factor which is often imminent in Depressive Rock so completely and ventured as far into underground black metal.

Guitar notes uncurl like drops of ink hitting water and timid bass rhythms shadow their crawling tempo. The first single "Nackskott" is a very pleasantly accessible, almost pop-ish song and it showcases the improved vocals from O with some very wild parts. MS Salmonella, erring between mid-paced and slow progressions and a very pronounced gradual lead part which finishes off the song excellently, strikes one as more easily penetrable. Yet pensive listens offer generous evidence to the opposite, as the strange and varied effects (screams, porn, humorous passages, guns shots and even Swedish children’s voice) which add a shining area of collective ideals and brilliance.

Lyrically, inspired by Black Metal Gods, Lifelover embarks down a pensive crushing path in the heart of cities, everyday life, misanthropy and even some dark humour, I am not Swedish but this kind atmosphere shows the light of the holy land . Shitting Christ, everything is managed by this clear and strange voice which enriches the experience verbally and emotionally and disconcert down to the very fibber of one's beings.

Overall, to call Pulver extraordinary and innovative is like saying gravity has a purpose. So, I want to close this review with a piece of advice: If your girlfriend will not like such a gift, don’t change it, just throw away your bitch!

Site: http://www.lifelover.se/

MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/lifeloverband