Faith - Blessed?

Published July 15 2008

*=Staff's pick	Blessed Void Of Bewilderment* Big Red, Nebraska Polska Efter Ida I Rye* Necropolis Twilight Condemned* Father Pious Never Go To Know Leipzigpolska*

Genre	Doom/Folk Metal	Christer Nilsson	Vocals
Tracks	9	Roger Johansson	Guitar
Runningtime	50 Min.	Christer Nilsson	Bass
Label	Transubstans Records	Peter Svensson	Drums
Release	30 May 2008	Håkan Malmros	Violin
Country	Sweden	Anders Smedenmark	Key Fiddle
Similar artists	Candlemass, Hedningarna

Swedish band Faith founded already back in 1984, yet Blessed? is only their third album so far. The debut came as late as 2003 in form of Salvation Lies Within. The album Blessed? starts with a long song, Blessed Void Of Bewilderment, which clocks in on over eight minutes, and it sets the tone right away being slow and heavy yet with a flow. Even though it is gloomy, they keep a light spirit in the song and add a sense of playfulness in their music. It has a mighty feeling and it includes a really catchy killer, making it a great opener that contains a lot to discover beneath the surface.

Faith, in my ears, share a lot in their sound with Candlemass and the track Father Pious shows the most obvious comparisons of that. However, the similarities are evident at many more times as with Big Red Nebraska and Necropolis. However, there's also more that is included to the sound of the album as seventies prog music, although just a hint, and progressive metal, but not that it is all over the place, but tastefully kept in place. In addition, Necropolis which features something that sound like the chanting of monks shows a great demonstration of that combined with the eighties doom sound.

What makes Faith stand out from other band is the element of violin and key fiddle that they use to a great extent, and I love the breaks with those instruments that pours out, especially in the mighty and a little mysterious track Twilight that contains a wonderful bass-line. Those instruments get the most space though in the instrumental tracks of Polska Efter Ida I Rye and Leipzigpolska, that almost sound to be traditional Swedish folksongs transpired into metal. They might be traditional as far as I know since I do not have any info about who has written what track. The way they come out is great and the blend of Swedish folk melancholia, the melodies and metal makes it feel genuinely Swedish.

Blessed? is an album that takes its time to settle in, but it is well worth it. Even though it does not offer any musical revelations it surely deserve its spot in any doom lovers record collection. It has diversity in its simplicity that makes interesting listening every time.

Performance	Originality	Production	Vocals	Songwriting
8	8	7	6	6

Summary
6 chalices of 10 - Thomas