Melodic Death Metal: Ablaze My Sorrow - The Plague (1998)

72 / 100

Ablaze My Sorrow’s The Plague refines many of the debut’s elements and reaches higher emotional stakes and presents memorable moments.

Although Ablaze My Sorrow never rose to the top of the melodic-death mainstream, the band from Falkenberg kept moving forward with the release of their second album The Plague. It was still released through No Fashion Records, the same label that housed other major bands such as Dark Funeral, Marduk, and Insania Stockholm, as well as AMB’s own seniors, Hypocrite.

What stands out compared to their debut is the rawer drum sound, the clearer, more structured, and fairly emotional guitar melodies, plus the bass, which is finally given space to be heard on certain tracks, “Into the Land of Dreams”, for example. The trademark “argh” scream introduction of Martin Qvist disappears completely, as vocals are now handled by a newcomer, Fredrik Arnesson. He even shows off some striking clean vocals halfway through “As the Dove Falls Torn Apart”. Meanwhile, “The Return of the Mighty Raven” offers the sole burst of high tempo at certain points, such as between 00:41–01:24.

Oh, and I feel the album cover fits the proverb “don’t judge a book by its cover”—because if compared, I clearly prefer Ablaze My Sorrow’s Latin-styled logo over the beautiful Kristian Wåhlin artwork of the debut, rather than The Plague’s artwork of a burning man. Still, it does feel relevant to the tracklist—almost as if that man is burning emotionally or mentally in the darkness of the night, ultimately deciding to end his life in “Suicide”. And when the classical instrumental outro “…Dawn” plays, it gives a cinematic ending vibe to the whole record.

I hesitate to bring up In Flames due to the melodies presented, yet as someone who only tried "In Flames" on Lunar Strain, the feeling isn’t that far off—and, yes, The Plague ends up hitting harder than If Emotions Still Burn, though there’s still nothing I truly take away from it except the outro.