The 11th Hour – Burden of Griel

Releasedate: 30-10-2009; Label: Napalm Records
By: Elvira Visser

According to the band’s official bio, The 11th Hour is “the wretched spawn of two kindred spirits’ love for good old fashioned doom metal.” The two kindred spirits are the multi instumentalist Ed Warby who you might know from Gorefest, Ayreon or Hail of Bullets together with the Swedish Rogga Johansson who you might know from Edge of Sanity, Paganizer and Ribspreader. This Dutch/Swedish duo had met and found out that they both share a love for doom metal. Both are known for their considerable death metal abilities.

For this album Ed Warby wrote all the song material and also played every single instrument you can hear. They share the vocal duties, each bringing in what they are good at. Rogga Johansson shows off his renowned harsh style. Together they created an album containing six track cycle of loss and regret. To create a more melancholy doom atmosphere they used rich string and piano sections. On this album Ed’s melodic vocals stands for despair while Rogga’s growls stands for bitterness and the determination to escape the fires of hell that these six tracks will bring you. The CD has a nice and dark melancholic atmosphere and the path you take with the guys starts immediately as a someone is breathing deep, scared. The six tracks are all different but share the same feel which makes this a great album knowing it is one guy who played all the instruments. The guitars are sharp and the voices sound well together. “In The Silent Grave” starts with very simple piano play, one note at the time, but it creates a good atmosphere. Of course there is enough room for the dark melodies. I am curious how they will bring this on stage as the album sounds quite promissing.

Tracklist: 01 One Last Smoke 02 In The Silent Grave 03 Origins of Mourning 04 Weep for Me 05 Atonement 06 Longing for Oblivion