Firebox Records is perhaps best known for atmospheric, somber, often doom-laden metal. The well-respected Finnish label’s roster has included vaunted underground acts such as Saturnus, Swallow the Sun, Pantheïst, Forest of Shadows and Remembrance. Mar de Grises stays consistent with the downtrodden atmospherics of the label, but hails from Chile—a much different location than the usual Scandinavian bands the label recruits.

Mar de Grises, which translates into “Sea of Grays,” prefers to write some of their songs on Draining the Waterheart in Spanish, imparting a Latin quality to tracks like “Kilometros de nada.” This track has a romantic feel that is further realized by the flowing rhythm of the group’s native language. Mono-lingual English speakers like yours truly won’t pick up on the Latin influence without some help from the lyric sheet. Lead doomsayer, Juan Escobar possesses abysmally low growls, which prove difficult to translate, so the language he chooses does not matter. The vocals seem slightly low in the mix, so even his clean range is obscured. However, his voice matches up well with a lyric sheet.

Based on the group’s emotive musical style, the poetic, dark aesthetic contained in the lyrics comes as no surprise. “Wooden Woodpecker Conversation” features three woodpeckers carrying on a strange dialogue on mortality and existence. This avian allegory may include strange lyrics, but the musical style and tone remains the same. Like many of the tracks, Mar de Grises splits the song into many segments. Melodramatic guitars and keys, ringing guitar and bass fuzz, and cerebral noise not only define this track but describe the band’s overall approach on the album.

Crackling feedback sets a mordant backdrop to the beginning of “Sleep Just One Dawn.” The first part of the track moves by up-tempo, high scale rhythms complete with rolling drums and menacing death growls. Near the end of the track, the energy seems to fizzle and melt into spacey, static-embedded noise that gradually becomes louder. “Kilometros de nada” moves along a similar route. Upfront piano keys move at the same sluggish stride of the guitar in the background at the beginning of the track. Near the middle of the track, the pace slows into heavily distorted doom and noise that eventually rises to the “up-tempo” rhythm of the beginning.

Doom metal has never been a lucrative commodity with metal fans. There are bands such as Trouble and Candlemass that have done fairly well, but not many record labels go out of their way to sign a good doom act. Kudos go out to underground labels such as Firebox for giving doom fans a place to find this obscure form of music. They usually don’t disappoint. Draining the Waterheart took a few listens and a deeper look into the lyrics, but in the end, Firebox delivered a excellence product.

www.myspace.com/mardegrises2