Band : Faith
Album Title : Blessed?
Label : Transubstans Records
Distributor : Clearspot
Release Date : 2008
Review : CD.

Faith was founded back in 1984 by the three guys that have been the heart of the band ever since: Roger Johansson - guitars, Christer Nilsson - bas and vocals and Peter Svensson – drums. While Faith has been a long heavy doom metal act, which is sort of a job requirement if you're going to play this sort of music.
Having been together over twenty years in a myriad of various lineups, Faith has put out a handful of recordings, with Blessed? being the latest. The album is a mix of various styles; there are power, doom, heavy, gothic, folk riffs, there are even some classical influenced lead parts on the album. But  what makes this album stand out, besides the various styles of metal incorporated in the songs, is the sound of the guitars and the vocal style. The guitars have a bluesy sound to them, which adds certain ‘catchiness’ to the songs, one of the hooks of the album for me..If you like your vocals clear and decipherable then these are for you. Blessed? opens with “Blessed void of bewilderment”, which has a heavy doom folky feel to it, like a mix between Candlemass and Hedningarna. Faith’s approach to doom takes on a very warm, classy approach that draws more from the melodic style of Candlemass and Solitude Aeturnus, but the strong use of violins does occasionally tend to give a medieval polska feel to their doom, particularly “Polska after dai rye” and “Lepipzigpolska”.
It is a well made and proficient album, but does it stand proud from the crowd? Yes, it does, not on every track, but on enough to ensure it made my disc player.

85/100
Cosmicmasseur.