What draws listeners into Swedish death metal tends to be the focus on stripped back punk riffs, a reliance on the D-beat, gruff shouts, hard rock inspired breakdowns and the classic chainsaw tone aided by the Boss HM-2 distortion pedal(this pedal should be retired). While Carnage and Dismember utilized such tropes, their music consisted of much more and their legacy hinges moreso on their compositional prowess rather than the use of gimmicks. Cemetary took the melodicism of those two bands, toned down the aggression and opted for a more gothic approach akin to the early death doom bands while still retaining that Swedish flavour.
The most immediate aesthetic quality of this album is the noticeable pick scraping on the tremolo riffs which in many ways has come to define this release. While at first it is distracting, it unintentionally heightens the ethereal mood presented. The pick scrapes function as a ghost mimicking the guitar riffs at a much higher register before randomly dissapearing only to unexpectedly return. The use of faux-acoustic guitars and cheap synths which are initially just as jarring as the pick scrapes are integral to the compositions. Though the synths rarely lead these songs, they accentuate certain response parts of a lot of the call and response riffs as seen on the title track. Though often they will indulge in “light” polyphony where they won’t follow the guitars but rather play a chord progression underneath. The breakdown that ends “Sidereal Passing” being a memorable highlight. The pseudo acoustic guitars rarely function independently and aren’t used as unrelated intro and outros to the song but rather to emphasize the overt emotionality of this album. “Nightmare Lake” breaks down into a synth and acoustic passage that is then joined by the rhythm guitars and an extremely dramatic vocal performance.. These are the moments in which the album shines. It’s the use of heavy metal melodies in a death metal context combined with gothic rock that allows this band to convey such emotionality without it sounding disingenuous or forced. Also of note here are the solos which take up a lot of the runtime for a death metal album. Eschewing technical displays or bursts of noise, the solos focus on simple melodies that are slowly developed throughout with repeating patterns that are reintroduced for the sole purpose of enriching the rhythm guitars. Oftentimes these solos return more than once throughout these songs with very little variation signifying how the band sees them as added layers rather than scattered points of interest.
The album is held together by an array of regular standard death metal riff shapes but never with the purpose of filling up space for the sake of it. What makes these riffs interesting is that there is always a melodic idea being displayed but with a lot more urgency and violence than during the moody passages. Despite the lack of dissonance or pure chromaticism, these segments never feel too saccharine as there is a lot of tension with a healthy dose of tempo and intensity changes that reach climax into the moodier passages on this album.
Ultimately this is a genuinely underappreciated classic in a subgenre that has received immense amounts of praise and adulation in recent years. Unlike many of the other bands that have defined Swedish death metal, this one is seldom replicated or mentioned. Possibly due to its willingness to let go of what made that style so popular. An Evil Shade of Grey is a classic that is a testament to what can be achieved when stepping outside of the mold without breaking stylistic barriers.
