Band : Nymf
Album title : Nymf
Label : Transubstans
Distributor : Clearspot
Release date : 2010
Review : CD

My first thought was that this band sounded very similar to another Swedish band namely The Graviators. This would not be surprising, as they share a vocalist Niklas Sjöberg, who founded Nymf in 2007 with guitarist Kristofer Stjernquist and have a typical Swedish doom meets stoner metal sound. Of course there are already many bands fishing in that same pond, yet Nymf pleases me somehow.

Nymf is just more forceful and mixing their roots with 70s rock and heavy doom metal.  The fast-paced "Step inside” and “Dark autumn’s fire” are outstanding tracks, probably the strongest examples of a Priest sound on the album. "Forsaken" has just an excellent guitar sound and a few nice leads as well. We cannot ignore the two vocalists: one has a low grunt, which is a downside in my book, the other one sings as Fredrik (Dozer) with a big Eric Wagner-potato in his mouth(?).Personally I prefer the more controlled and mellow singing style exemplified beautifully on “Forsaken”, which is one of the albums top tracks with a great chord progression. Overall the individual songs have several moods and sound collages. The title track and “Bleeding heart” understate that with varied tempo and many different chord structures. On the downside, a few of the songs on Nymf are a little too similar and repetitive after repeat listenings, but that has been the curse of other stoner metal bands as well.

If you are a fan of either Trouble, Dozer or even The Graviators you should give Nymf a listen.

80/100

Cosmicmasseur.