Altars of Grief - Iris [Reviews]

Review from Lords of Metal

March 16, 2019

From: Lords of Metal

Published: March 1, 2019

Waarom we bij Lords nu pas, bijna een jaar na release, Iris van het Canadese Altars Of Grief ter bespreking krijgen mag Joost weten. Maar ja, beter laat dan nooit zullen we maar zeggen. Of het moet een erbarmelijke plaat zijn natuurlijk, dan geldt uiteraard beter nooit dan laat. Gelukkig is Iris meer dan okay. Het is een heerlijke death doom plaat met heel wat black metalinvloeden (luister maar eens naar Desolation), wat funeral doom en tevens ook wat post rock/metalachtige stukken. Er is dus variatie alom aanwezig in de nummers, en nergens komt deze afwisseling geforceerd of als los zand over. Het vloeit allemaal lekker organisch weg. Kwaadaardig waar nodig, contemplatief als het kan. Alles zit op de juiste plaats. Tot voor kort was ik totaal niet bekend met dit gezelschap. Iris daarentegen zorgt ervoor dat ik nu het oudere werk ook eens ga checken. Al met al een prima plaat.

Rating: 78/100

Reviewed by: Marcel H

Posted by Nick Skog. Posted In : Dutch

Review from Metal Gods TV

February 11, 2019

From: Metal Gods TV

Published: February 9, 2019

Original Link

Canadian blackened funeral doom troop Altars Of Grief are definitely aptly named and on Iris, the bands second full length album, they mercilessly unleash a mixture of heaviness, sadness and all encompassing bleakness to devastating and stunning effect. This is music soaked in sadness but reveling in the triumph of that sadness.

The epic and sublime (and again, aptly named) Isolation gets things off to the most funereal starts and yo...

Posted by Nick Skog. Posted In : English

Review from The Pit of the Damned

February 3, 2019

From: The Pit of the Damned

Published: February 3, 2019

Original Link

La Hypnotic Dirge Records sta facendo un buon lavoro, fondamentalmente votato a scovare band interessanti in territori black doom senza sbracarsi troppo in innumerevoli uscite annuali. Lo scorso anno tra le release più interessanti dell'etichetta canadese, c'è sicuramente da annoverare quella degli Altars of Grief, quintetto originario di Regina, nel Saskatchewan. Il genere in cui è possibile collocare i canadesi è quello ...

Posted by Nick Skog. Posted In : Italian

Review from Metalfan.nl

January 17, 2019

From: metalfan.nl

Published: January 16, 2019

Original Link

De weersomstandigheden in de tweede helft van december en eerste week van januari zijn niet om vrolijk van te worden. Aan de andere kant past het weer prima bij doom metal. Het druilerige van buiten stemt somber en vraagt om navenante klanken. Eén van de releases die daarop aansluit, is Iris van Altars Of Grief.

De Canadese doomband beperkt zich daarop echter niet tot trage passages. Soms versnelt men met blasts en blackmetalriffs, zoal...

Posted by Nick Skog. Posted In : Dutch

Review from Scum Feast Zine

December 22, 2018

From: Scum Feast Zine

Published: December 21, 2018

Original Link

So with a name like ALTARS OF GRIEF I was pretty sure what I was getting myself into with this release. Now if that wasn't a total giveaway then there's the song titles for example liker "Isolation", "Desolation", "Voices of Winter", etc. This band is also from Saskatchewan, Canada aka: the Yuke. Years ago I spent two years in Alaska so I know about the extreme cold and cabin fever. The only thing missing here is a bottle of bourb...

Posted by Nick Skog. Posted In : English

Review from Aristocrazia Webzine

August 15, 2018

From: Aristocrazia Webzine

Published: August 6, 2018

Original Link

Il nostro primo incontro con gli Altars Of Grief avvenne qualche anno fa, in occasione dello split con i Nachtterror; fu solo un breve assaggio del loro potenziale, tuttavia risultò già convincente. L'uscita di "Iris" ci consente, finalmente, di conoscere meglio la band canadese.

Inutile girarci intorno, questo album è una bomba. Me ne ero reso conto fin da subito e il fatto che dopo due settimane di ascolti non abbia perso in ...

Posted by Nick Skog. Posted In : Italian

Review from Obscuro.cz

August 15, 2018

From: Obscuro.cz

Published: August 4, 2018

Original Link

Hodina mezi psem a vlkem, hudba mezi black a doom metalem. Ponurá hudba, mlžně zakalená oparem truchlivého svítání. Kanadští Altars of Grief vydali své nové album už březnu letošního roku, ale v záplavě novinek mi drobná, nepravidelná perla unikla.

Album „Iris“ se možná blíží víc melodickému death doomu, ale má nádherné, temné chvíle, kdy zní velice efektním blackem. Atmosféra protahované deprese je z...

Posted by Nick Skog. Posted In : Czech

Review from No Clean Singing

August 15, 2018

From: No Clean Singing

Published: July 26, 2018

Original Link

We’ve filled this post to the brim with a whole variety of different death metal and grind metal acts, so why not shift gears just a bit and go for the full-blown and melodramatic doom of Regina, Saskatchewan’s very own Altars Of Grief?

Iris was hotly anticipated around these here parts and to put it bluntly, holy shit is it unfair just how good Iris is. Although there was some line-up shifting (and still kind of is, as the band s...

Posted by Nick Skog. Posted In : English

Review from The Headbanging Moose

August 15, 2018

From: The Headbanging Moose

Published: June 29, 2018

Original Link

Highly influenced by the desolate landscapes and the solitude of long, prairie winters, here comes one of the biggest names in Canadian Blackened Doom with a superb new album narrating a tragic story of a deeply flawed man and his dying daughter.

Formed in November 2013 in Regina, the capital city of the Canadian province of Saskatchewan, Blackened Doom act Altars of Grief has worked over the years to develop a weighty concoction ...

Posted by Nick Skog. Posted In : English

Review from Teeth of the Divine

August 15, 2018

From: Teeth of the Divine

Published: June 25, 2018

Original Link

Canada’s Hypnotic Dirge Records is best known for its crippling doom metal but a few recent forays into atmospheric/depressive/black metal such as Kassad, None, Kval, Mavradoxa and such haven’t been quite as successful in my humble opinion, but a here is a glorious, rending return to from from Canada’s own aptly named “prairie doom” act Altars of Grief, and it’s utterly amazing.

I hate to use the name of deceased folks...

Posted by Nick Skog. Posted In : English