Ava Inferi - The Silhouette

Genre: Doom, Funeral
Name: Ava Inferi
Album: The Silhouette, 2007
The Hell of Birds

Once again, I didn't post something at the weekend. This was a combination of concerts, paintballing and sheer laziness. Still, I got round to it eventually

Whilst searching for tickets to see My Dying Bride this summer in London, I came across the opening act, Ava Inferi. A little research later, and I thought they'd be worth a listen, especially since they described themselves as "soul" on their myspace page. However, whilst that aspect was clear to see on the one song provided, I did not find it so with this album - certainly they were doom, but no other label can be moulded to their shape, I feel.

The Silhouette was certainly worth a listen, however. For a start, somewhat unusually for doom metal bands, there are only clean, female vocals throughout this album, which adds for a bit of variety amongst other such bands - indeed, there is even a purely vocal song, Oathbound, which features a slightly odd choir. In addition, the piano, so often overused by doom bands, makes only a brief appearance here, but is used very well in The Dual Keys. The guitars consistently play decent riffs, and the drums avoid standard and dull rhythms, notably on Viola. All in all, it seems very good.

However, there are a couple of minor flaws. Firstly, there is an over-reliance on samples - the album opens with the recording of a beach, which is fine in itself; the very next track, rain begins to patter on something like corrugated iron (or maybe they've just spilt some frozen peas); later on you find clips of fire, by which point it is getting a bit wearing, and then, towards the end, you can hear sounds of either digging or footsteps or some general sounds from the leaf-litter, which is not only unclear but now nearly downright annoying.

This is really just part of a grander point - although the tracks were individually good, as an album, The Silhouette was not particularly coherent. Take, for example, tracks 7 and 8. La Stanza Nera ends rather abruptly, which isn't a problem, but then Grin Of Winter comes in, with a grating and generally irritating beginning, which would have been far better out of context. This album has the flow of a river, on level ground, in the middle of the desert, during the dry season, and which isn't actually a river, but rather just a large, unmoving rock.


Summary: Good songs, poorly ordered. Listen to it on shuffle.

Lyrical Themes: Nature, Despair, Love, Death

Rating: 6.5/10

Track listing:
1. A Dança das Ondas
2. Viola
3. The Abandoned
4. Oathbound
5. The Dual Keys
6. Wonders of Dusk
7. La Stanza Nera
8. Grin of Winter
9. Pulse of the Earth

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