Contemplations is an album that cascades down on you like a waterfall - melodic death/doom blends together with acoustic guitar passages, bleak, beleaguering assaults, and reflective thoughts to create a sound that crashes overhead and envelopes you in its mood. This is the second full-length album from Swedish group Soliloquium who sound smooth and coarse all at once producing a crushing sound that ripples through the darkness and into the recesses of your soul. There's an undercurrent of harrowing, bitter metal but melancholic melodies keep breaking through resulting in a stormy sea of sound on which you'll be taken under by a raging wave only to find yourself floating back to the surface in the eerie calm afterwards! Clean guitar weaves its way through the album leading to introspection between the anguished outbursts commanded by deep death vocals. Everybody compares these guys to Katatonia and with good reason! Not only does the band cite them as an influence but you can hear a ton of similarities in musical style - and while you can attribute some of that to commonalities of the Swedish metal sound, I gotta say that if you like Katatonia, you're going to like Soliloquium. Contemplations is somber, fierce, and beautiful all at once - highly recommended for death/doom devotees! As an extra interesting note, Soliloquium's website (deathdoom.com) contains more info than just about the band - there's also all kinds of primers and guides on doom metal and its various subgenres that are definitely worth digging into, so check it out! -Brandon
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