Garden of Stone hail from Finland and have just released their debut album, “The Grave Mistake“, through Inverse Records.
When I think of the land of a thousand lakes, bands like Amorphis, Sentenced, Children of Bodom, and Apocalyptica immediately come to mind, bands I love and that still bring joy to my metalhead soul. So, I won’t hide the fact that my expectations were already quite high. Were, indeed, because unfortunately, they melted away like a block of ice in a fiery crater.
The album consists of 12 tracks, including three instrumentals, which serve to divide the record into distinct sections. The intro “Visions of the End” and the short track “Paradigm Shift” feature spoken word passages, while “Resolution” introduces the album’s final two songs.
Garden of Stone attempt to merge melodic death metal with melancholic melodic rock. While their raw sound and death metal vocals show promise, their weaknesses become evident when they slow things down.
Musically, the band is fairly solid, boasting strong guitar riffs and convincing, aggressive growls. “Days of Discord” could have been an excellent opening track, if not for the somewhat weak clean vocals, though here, they are less prominent than in later tracks and blend better when slightly raspier. “The Prophet” is my personal favorite on the album, featuring a headbanging-worthy riff and melodies that remind me of the great Nevermore.
With “Waiting for the Light“, the band fails to fully convince; once again, they shine in the more intense sections but struggle when the pace slows down. The stylistic similarities to Warrel Dane’s unforgettable band reappear in the semi-ballad “Observer“. However, despite some interesting ideas, the song never truly takes off, stumbling repeatedly.
With “Unveiled“, the band returns to a heavier approach, delivering one of their strongest performances, both instrumentally and vocally.
“New Dawn” is an inspired track that gets heads moving, but the clean vocals once again feel out of place, diminishing the song’s overall impact. “Daydream“, unfortunately, highlights the band’s limitations even more glaringly, lackluster melodies and underwhelming vocal performances make it one of the weakest moments on the album.
“Ode to Rage” is a powerful, aggressive track, but once again, the clean vocals in the choruses weaken the overall effect. Similarly, “Insanity” is yet another semi-ballad with melancholic undertones, ending with a somewhat chaotic black metal-inspired finale.
A recurring pattern emerges throughout the album: nearly every track starts strong, with solid ideas and promising melodies, but the band frequently loses its way, extending the compositions unnecessarily and making questionable choices, particularly regarding clean vocals.
As a whole, “The Grave Mistake” fails to fully deliver. Recurring flaws prevent it from being a truly enjoyable experience. A real shame, because the initial potential was there, but the band’s limitations are evident. They still have a long way to go in terms of growth and finding their own identity.