Entry 297 - Hanging Garden - I Am Become

 

I go through phases where I become obsessed with a particular genre for a few days or few weeks. A while back it was melodic doom/death. I picked up I Am Become in the middle of one of those periods where I couldn't get enough of the genre.

Hanging Garden fall somewhere in between mid period Katatonia and Finnish doom/death. The clean vocals remind me quite a bit of Jonas from Last Fair Deal era Katatonia. The growls are well executed and have quite a bit of girth to them, it helps with the delivery as this kind of music needs conviction in the vocals to be effective.

The music weaves in and out of clean and heavy sections. The clean sections are likely accompanied by clean vocals, and the heavier sections often feature growls. In terms of surprises there isn't much here in that regard. The album is melodic doom/death by the numbers.

Despite the album being rather generic overall, the melodies and vocals are well executed. It's an easy album to listen to and fits the mood perfectly if this the genre of choice at the moment. It's one of those albums to put on and acknowledge "hey that's pretty neat" before shelving it again for a year plus before the mood strikes again.