Behind The Shadows 1998

"While I think that their most recent release "Návaz" is pretty good, this album never really impressed me. I mean it is not a bad album, and the Slavic folk influences that make Silent Stream of Godless Elegy interesting are present here, too.

In addition to the Slavic influences, the band seems to have taken inspiration from early Paradise Lost and My Dying Bride, which is of course not a bad thing at all, and a lot of the riffage seems reminiscent of My Dying Bride's more melodic efforts.

The music itself is not bad - but not as good as on "Návaz", and one reason is of course that they are much more experienced musicians now in 2011 than they were back in 1998.

The main reason why I, while I like this album, is not the biggest fan of it is the vocals.

Back in the 1990s, death doom (doom metal with growled vocals) all the rage, and Silent Stream of Godless Elegy took the growled vocals from death doom and applied them to their own brand of melodic folk doom metal... and that just does not work, I think. I have always found it problematic with growled vocals and doom metal, because I never really thought that such a brutal singing style suited the melancholic style that i doom metal - especially not doom metal that emphasizes melody to the extent that Silent Stream of Godless Elegy do. To be honest, I think that the growled and harsh vocals on this album sound out of place and outright stupid.

This would have been much better as an instrumental release (the music itself is multifaceted enough for this to be possible), but that is water under the bridge now, because, as we know, they ended up hiring a female vocalist.

(review originally posted on metalmusicarchives.com)"