November is Doom- Night Resident : "Total Obscurity"

 

The third album from the dark Greek proto metallers flirts with a similar brand of saccharine melodies to offset the darker metallic elements, though taking from the menace. In their case, it also gives things a uniform sound as they go to the well too many times with it, and that is by the second song alone. They have a Ghsot fixation. At least they are not dressing up like clowns.. "Summer Night Tale" is trummed out more likea 60s pop song, before they find a chug. I am all for melody in dark music and hard rock; in fact, I prefer singing over growls or screamed vocals, but here things are getting brightened up too much. 

To their credit, there is some great guitar playing on this album. "Echoes In Eternity" carries a more powerful punch before ebbing into the verse. It sounds like what we heard on the second song with the palm muted chug. The sugary melodies on the chorus are better than just random screaming, but a more aggressive vocal approach with more balls to it might work, as heard in bands like In Solitude, who were able to use emotive vocals to bring the gloom to life. There is more sonic intensity in the strum building up to "A Silent Vow" that dies into a cowpunk strum. 

Things are just not that dark at all for " Dark Alleys", I mean, when they wrote the song, did they listen back to what they were doing? And it's certainly not worth being an instrumental. The more Judas Priest guitar vibes of "Final Words" is an improvement that the vocals piss on a bit. At this juncture, the album becomes something I have to power through. The bass intro to "Ghosts of the Future" offers some promise. It touches on the same melodic themes they have really worn out, with just marginal enough changes to make it feel like a different song. This also includes the awful vocal harmonies that build for the chorus. "Sinking Spell" closes the album. The vocals once again take the edge from the vocals, but still leave a lingering melancholy that works better than some of the previous efforts.  I will give this album a 7.5, as there is some great guitar playing and the vocals try, but the vibe check is off. 

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