Author: Rok Klemše
Artist: Sabaium
Release: 2006
It’s funny how Sabaium always get tagged as gothic metal in the same breath. Their third record, Gravity Divine, delivers anything but gothic metal. The only thing that even faintly recalls the genre is Vesna Kupčič’s atmospheric keyboards. Gravity Divine is also the band’s sixth record, since before they renamed themselves Sabaium in 1997, they went by Catacomb and Decayed Catacomb.
In 2004, after the departure of the band’s driving force, drummer Milko, the group nearly fell apart. Once they’d beefed up the lineup with new drummer Jure Hadler and guitarist Leon Svilar, the sun shone on Sabaium again, and Gravity Divine came out as a self-release.
Gravity Divine serves up a very groovy take on melodic death metal, with a ton of atmospheric keyboards humming in the background. Every track plods down a methodical path and never veers off the set formula, apart from a few moments of fast beats with double bass drum and the occasional excursion of the keyboards into the foreground. The whole record ends up sounding lifeless, soulless, and never important enough to change the flow of the album even a little bit.
Thick, “chuga-chuga” riffs weave around the dual vocals, which swing from a mid-low growl to the odd high-pitched scream. Every now and then the average mix is joined by “half-solos” and mild lead guitars, but sadly those moments are truly few and far between.
Gravity Divine is hard to pin down to a single genre. You could say it stretches from black metal and melodic death metal all the way to gothic metal, but it’s not hard to conclude that the record is painfully boring and feeble. There’s practically not a single moment to get excited or happy about. Only with the tenth track in a row, Saintlike Sinner, can I say that something sticks in the memory, at least in the medium term. That said, we can conclude that Gravity Divine is a very focused album – Sabaium are totally sure how they want the album to sound and which road they want to take. Personally, I don’t think that road will take them far. Then again, Sabaium are already slowly working on a new record, with new guitarist Jure Vandur, and I hope it’ll be better than Gravity Divine.
Lineup
David Kupčič – vocals, guitar
Vesna Kupčič – keyboards
Aleš Šketa – bass guitar
Leon Svilar – guitar
Jure Hadler – drums
Production
Sabaium
Tracklist
1. Sound of Void
2. Moonlight Child
3. Astral Passage
4. Divine Gravity
5. Phases of Angels
6. Quest Within
7. End of Days
8. The Night Before
9. Cradle Borned Curse
10. Saintlike Sinner
11. Mephisto’s Dance
