This ironically is going to be the only death doom band I cover this month, well because of their name. This is the same line up that has been enact for the past 9 years. The first song finds the clean vocals are more prominent, even the rougher ones are in a throaty sung growl rather than total cookie monster. The cookie monster vocals are not far behind as they kick in for the second song. There are melancholic shades, but the first two songs are more uptempo and rooted closer to death . It is not until title track that things darken into a more morose direction. Then it is doom in the same way Katatonia roughly is. The sung vocals remind me more of how Enslaved uses sung vocals. They are not soulful but more of a crooned despondency.
I do like the mellower shades of gray the work in on " What We Become", this finds all of their more typical tropes working with flowing precision. They hit the chords with authority and the melody fits perfectly. I need more of this and less meandering. It is this part of the album where we here their more traditional doom sound. The growls return on "Adagio" . The chorus to this song works as it is heart felt. In these moments they remind me of My Dying Bride" . "Black Light' finds them returning to more of a eath metal feel, but the morose vocals still linger. They return to the melodic gloom that beats their death metal on " the Clearing Blind". It has both groove and melody. "Still Wrath" is pretty heavy and look more towards their death metal direction. As a song it is pretty straight forward.
The drumming on this album is excellent. I also the reason they go in more of a death metal direction at time, if it was less bombastic and more plodding this album would have more of a doom sound. This can also be heard in "the Obelus " . Which is another uptempo song with more of a death metal feel. I will give this a 9 as there are some where catchy songs that grow on you, even though this is almost too well produced in terms of guitar tones for my taste.
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