Searing Meadow
ENDURING ENCHANTMENT

April 2004
Released: 2002, Self-released
Rating: 3.5/5
Reviewer: Luxi Lahtinen

Hands up everyone of you who are still missing Amorphis´ TALES –era?! Ha, I thought so... that many! Well, for your loss probably, I can announce that Amorphis obviously has no intention to go back that a bit more ´brutal´ -era of their sound, so how is it a similar sounding stuff to the TALES –era brought to you by some other band? Searing Meadow as a name, doesn´t ring too many bells yet amongst the Heavy Metal -fans, I believe, but however, this rather unknown newcomer to the Finnish metal scene has managed to adopt a very familiar sound for themselves that is actually amazingly similar to the same sounds of doomy yet melancholic Death Metal where Amorphis proved to be the uncrowned masters all alone at on their highly appreciated and groundbreaking TALES FROM THE THOUSAND LAKES –album. The Searing Meadow –dudes have already confessed in public that particular album has overall been a very huge inspiration for their sound and it really shows.



I received this 3-song demo from the guys some weeks already and the more I have been listening to the songs on it, I can easier subscribe their honest confessions about all those similarities to the TALES –album. But since Amorphis has given up that style a long time ago and evolved and headed their way constantly more and more toward a more Prog-Rock –thing musically, in my opinion it´s only cool and very much appreciated that they still have got a few disciples around that specific album on the globe who actually haven´t completely forgotten that timeless classic and even managed to get inspired by it musically. These fine musicians in Searing Meadow have seen their opportunity to keep a tradition going on for the ´90s melancholic Doom-Death-Heavy Metal into TALES –vein and I bet there shouldn´t be anyone to blame them for copycatting the early Amorphis –sound.



"Three Names for Denial" could actually be a (leftover?) song that was recorded during the TALES –sessions as its dynamics and familiar arrangements are very close to all that what Amorphis was capable of doing on TALES. Searing Meadow´s stuff only happens to be a bit less atmospheric, less keyboard-stressed, a bit less heavy and not as mature and thought-out as Amorphis´, but still they do remind me musically of Amorphis´ TALES a great deal. Even the vocalist of Searing Meadow, M. Ikonen sounds like he could be a twin brother of Tomi Koivusaari with his deep yet very effective vocal grunts. He´s damn impressive the way how he manages to pull off such a similar voice to Tomi´s vocal parts on some more Death Metal -orientated Amorphis albums.



The band just recently signed to the Finnish Rising Realm Records and their 12-song debut album titled CORRODING FROM INSIDE should be released during this spring. In the meantime, get yourself ENDURING ENCHANTMENT, even as a good teaser prior to their debut hits the stores near you.