To be honest, I'd skip this release immediately if I would see it standing in a CD shop. The moniker doesn't ring in one's ears and the cover is the same old skyline-with-grunge-brushes like I've seen a thousand times before. A pity, really, because on paper, Liquid Graveyard seems a quite interesting combo.
This quartet incorporates shreds of death metal, progressive, gothic and even psychedelic rock. Add a female vocalist to the equation, one that can both sing and scream, and suddenly, there are plenty of ingredients to make a delicious stew - only if the cook knows his business, though. Songwriter John Walker isn't a three-star chef, but experience has clearly imparted him with the tricks of the trade. Every composition has a balanced feel and avoids the obvious pitfalls. There's plenty of variety too, both in the vocal and instrumental lines: from double kicks and grunts to acoustic jamming and soprano. The tracks spend most of their time in the prog/gothic section, though, with intermittent but adorable hints of doom. Heavy, slow-paced riffing with clean vocals that hit the sweet spot are always bingo. Oddly enough, Raquel's screams are manly as fuck and, regardless of style, more powerful than her clean chants. Eat that, Angela Gossow.
All these features allow the listener to cope with the flaws of "On Evil Days". While somewhat inherent to the genre(s), the riffing is both slow and simplistic. Not a bad thing, and Walker finds nice variations to the basic scheme, too. But towards the final tracks there's the almost inevitable "been there, done that" feeling. The novelty of Liquid Graveyard's sound wears off too quickly. "On Evil Days" is not one to spin more than once in a while (unless you're inseparably hooked on the genre), but it is a fair release that could prove essential in the conception of the albums yet to come.
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AUTHOR: Goran
Goran has been an active reviewer for years (since the old Fishcomcollective, to the brand new Corazine - and also for Face Your Underground). He enjoys - besides metal - the creative side of life, be it through music, sports, programming or 3D. You can find him at www.myspace.com/fdemets.