After the first release back in 2013, and the EP “All I Want” last year, Avatarium revealed to the world as one of the most promising and original bands in the metal panorama, fusing traditional doom metal and blues rock, with a sweet deep female voice. The anxiety about if they could keep it up with the previous releases is over with their new released “The Girl With The Raven Mask”. The record is quite an exploration of melancholy guidedby the voice of Jennie-Ann Smith, with a touch of Black Sabbath here and there. A real journey to surreal places hand in hand with strange characters, and 70’s stylish guitars played with a modern sound by the ex-member of Candlemass,Marcus Jidell. On bass, there’s one of the founders of Candlemass,Leif Edling. Carl Westholm keyboards take quite a fundamental part in some songs, avoiding them to fall in some kind of monotony. The production gave us back exactly the same sound as the previous record as you’ll hear in songs like “Girl With the Raven Mask”, the bluesy “The January Sea”, the melodic crescendo “Pearls and Coffins”, the dream taking kind of novel “Hypnotized”, the mystic “Ghostlight”, and “Run Killer Run”. The pace to the end of the album is marked by “In My Time of Dying”. If Black Sabbath had a female vocalist, it would sound just like this.
7/10
