Customer Reviews: Read 9 more reviews...
 Soulburner, Gardenian August 16, 2000
rett burroughs (West Point, NY United States)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This CD is one of the best European releases in the Death Metal Genre. The guitars and vocals mix very well and I find myself rockin out every time I listen to this CD. If you like In Flames, Therion, or Six Feet Under, you must check this CD out.
 Pretty damn good! March 29, 2003
Sergio Morales (Levittown, NY United States)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is the first record I've purchased from Gardenian and I actually got it for free during a free CD givaway from a local radio station. All the CD's they had there were pretty much low budget trash so I figured this wouldn't be any different. Needless to say I was wrong. This would best be put under the catagory of Melodic Death Metal, although it isn't as hard hitting as usual Cannibal Corpse/early Fear Factory Death metal, but still pretty hard on some songs. Sweden seems to just spit out great metal bands such as this one, Opeth and In Flames.
The record opens great with "As a True King," a fast,hard hitting song with a great chorus. It continues this with track 2 and 3. At track 4 "Soulburner" is where the disk starts to not be as good, it just tends to slow down its fast pace. That and track 5 are OK, but I would just end up hitting the skip button. Then comes track 6 "Small Electric Space" which I can't stand hearing. It picks itself back up with the hard hitting track 7 "Chaos", 8-"Ecstacy of life", 9-"Tell the World I'm sorry", and 11-"Black Days" (A great song, probably the best on the album). All track 7,8,9, and 11 are great fast paced, hard songs with great growling vocals mixed with melodic ones too.
My main gripe with this album is mostly with the lead singers voice. Given he's got an amazing growl voice, I can't stand to hear his melodic voice more then a few seconds. During certain chorus's like that of Track 3 are good, but the reason I couldn't stand 6-"small electric space" is because he sings melodically during the whole song. He does have a good voice in general, but he sounds like an actor that just came off a New York Broadway musical. The voice is just, well, fruity to really grab my attention without making me want to hit the skip button. It's not a strong melodic voice; it's good but still weak.
Besides these few songs I didn't care for on this record I was very surprised it was this good. Sure, it isn't a classic by any means but it's definitly a lot of fun to pop in the CD player and listen to, I would definitely recommend this album to any fan of melodic or swedish death metal.
Nothing special but melo-death fans will like it November 6, 2002
Chris 'raging bill' Burton (either Kent or Manchester, United Kingdom)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
At a first glance it would be easy to lump Gardenian with At The Gates, Soilwork, The Haunted or any other melodic death metal band from Gothenburg. The typical sound, the typical melodies, the typical vocals. But take a deeper listen and they are actually putting out material with more variety and innovation. OK, so they're nowhere near Opeth, Amorphis, In Flames or to a lesser extent Children Of Bodom in terms of originality, but they incorporate lots of clean (and female) vocals, a variety of tempos and heaviness, quiet moments and a degree of subtlety. Take Small Electric Space for example. This song has no death metal vocals at all, and is a brilliant song with great melodies but also a dose of aggression. Not that Gardenian can't rock when they want to. One listen to the blistering opener As A True King can confirm that.Although it is fair to say that in the general running of the Swedish melodic death metal scene Gardenian are yet to find their own sound, what they do with that sound is considerably more varied and innovative than most other Gothenburg style metal bands that I've heard. If you want something innovative then I recommend Follow The Reaper by Children Of Bodom or Orchid by Opeth. If you want something very heavy all the way through then check out Whisper Supremacy by Cryptopsy or Close To A World Below by Immolation. It is certainly fair to say that if you've heard it all before then you could give it a miss, but if you are put off by incredibly heavy music or feel that you do not have much patience and you prefer just to get to the meat of the sandwich (in a musical sense of course!), then Soulburner is a worthy enough addition to your collection.
 Tasty melodic metal October 19, 2000
skullhead (San Francisco, CA, USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Those familiar with the so-called "Gothenburg Sound" will know what to expect here. The music is crushingly heavy but with melody laden thoughout. Catchy tunes. The vocals are predominantly death to death-black growls. A second session vocalist provides some Bruce Dickinson-esque moments as well. Surprisingly, for an album that frequently includes clean vocals, the album is mostly straight-ahead melodic death and is less accessible than, say, In Flames' or Dark Tranquillity's latest releases.Not the most original material in the world, but if you, like myself, can't get enough metal (particularly of the heavy-yet-melodic variety), this is for you.
Great Album February 3, 2000
Susan Neimand (NMB, Fl)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This was the first album I bought this year, and boy its a good one. The style is similar to that of In Flames, yet it combines elements such as clean vocals, occasional female vocals, and some keyboards to make an outstanding album. This is probably what Dark Tranquillity was trying to create with Projector, except on Soulburner everything works.
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