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| FEATURES | GET DOWN WITH SOLITUDE PRODUCTIONS VOL III | |||
IT'S A 7 INCH EXTRAVAGANZA IV |
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By Arkus |
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Wedding in Hades – Elements of Disorder. We all do it. Come on, you know you want to pull out Midian but the fanboys keep you at bay as they loom in the doorway of the mall. For those of us afraid to admit we listen to Cradle of Filth, we can pop this sucker in and pretend we never heard of 'em. Wedding in Hades play a symphonic, gothic style of metal. The guitars slowly bury you in snow, the bass has a slightly-distorted twang like a muscle about to snap, and the singing ranges from throat-cutting roars to operatic. The symphonic elements are particularly well-written, but it's not really anything you haven't heard before. The only thing really going for it is its obscurity. If you can't bring yourself to don corpse paint anymore, let Elements of disorder give you some solace with a total illegible band logo to boot. MySpace |
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| S.C.A.L.P. has been categorized as doom/gothic, but that's definitely not what you'll find here. Going between thrash, black metal, and a few other genres, Чужая война provides a variety of sounds. The guitar hooks come off with a distinct, Russian quality while occasionally pulling out hardcore punk with more traditional thrash. The title of the album is hard to translate, coming off as 'A Foreign War' but it's almost impossible to put into English properly. The bardic quality of the vocals brings it together for some awesome Russianness, but you won't understand that aspect unless you're familiar with the language and musicians like Okudzhava. Чужая война paints a picture of the vastness of the steppes with Cossacks jumping over running horses, but if you're a foreigner with little knowledge of Russian culture, it's going to push you away. MySpace |  |
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Ea play a style of funeral doom, all the more fitting because they apparently base their music on a dead language. The chords take forever to resolve. The drummer sounds like his arms fall off when he fills. The vocals are raw and sound like they're coming from a forgotten well, roaring for what seems an eternity. Add to this some eerie piano, church organ and keyboards that sound somewhat simple at times, and you get one depressing album. It's easy to imagine slowly crying yourself to death as you lie on the floor listening to this, but then again anything slow could really pull that off. Only three tracks, all stretching time to the limit. The rawness of the recording also gives it a dense quality. A show with these guys probably only happens when someone dies and they need accompaniment for the wake. Good, because this isn't going to wake anything up. |
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After their huge leap into the doom scene, Ea returned a few years later to release II. At this point, it's clear that they've gotten more tuned to their instruments. The arrangements are more complex, and the production quality higher. However, the rawness of Ea Taesse was one of the things that made it so powerful, and the simplicity of the piano and organ was key. The clarity added to this release seems to have toned down the 'funeralness' of their sound. The drums now add some interesting fills to break the slowness and the guitars tend to stand out more, but one can't help but recognize how similar everything is. Can you really do this for more than one album? It has some better moments, but Ea's first release still trumps this one. |
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Having already downed two of Ea's albums like an anti-depressant horse pill, we move on to the third. At this point, it seems you've been popping this one too many times. Au Elai has a slightly different approach, but the same vastness, stress on same. The vocals rumble on again and the drums occasionally interject with some rapid kicks. The symphonic work is more impressive, but still, onwards to the church we go. This church needs a new organist. The guitars have less of a focus as in II and more drive than Ea Taesse, but it's very clear by this release that funeral doom is not an easy genre. Out with the rawness, and in with the, well, the same fucking thing as before. As the music trudges along, you can't help but feel you heard this the first two times, and you probably did. |
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Frailty’s Lost Lifeless Lights pulls together a number of styles, but gothic metal reigns supreme. Is it possible this band name wasn't already selected? You'd expect it listed as Fraility (insert country abbreviation) in Metallum. At any rate, this basically sounds like gothic metal (insert band name). Lost Lifeless Lights pulls out the usual. Symphonics, epic guitars, and a wide variety of singing, everything from death metal to throat-tearing screeches. It's pretty standard. Lots of hooks, moments where the keyboards shine, operatic singing, the gothic metal bag has been dipped into once again along with black sweaters for the band photos. If you're into that sort of thing, you'll probably like it, otherwise look elsewhere. MySpace |
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Solitude seems to be a big fan of doom metal, in particular funeral doom, as one can find by the list of releases presented here. Here's another, and boy are we starting to get sick of it. Tip, don't marginalize yourself. Still, Somnolent isn't exactly a poor quality band. They create some really powerful riffs at times, heart-wrenching pulses of feedback and decayed strings slothing together. Sometimes, though, it sounds like proper tuning was forgotten. Very hard to describe, suffice to say anyone with an actual ear for music will cringe occasionally. Is this on purpose? We all know minor steps are totally brutally evil, but this just sounds like someone forgot their scales. We hope so, and we'll give them the benefit of the doubt. If you're looking for funeral doom where true dissonance rings out with token waves in the background, Monochromes Philosophy might be for you, might. MySpace |
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Autumnia is a two-man band that plays an awesome form of doom metal similar to Dark Castle, but I have to say (sorry editor man), this is a hell of a lot better. The guitar work pulls you along with excellent compositions, coupled with real fucking violin and drums that know when to pump the kick. One good thing are the occasional breaks in atmosphere that create a sense of emptiness, suddenly filled back up with painful moans, heavy chording, and harmonic lines with more of a solo bend. o'Funeralia shows clearly how the band is able to easily move back and forth between different styles while maintaining a good grasp of progression. Each song has its own atmosphere, but it all manages to feel like you're reading Chatterton on a cliff overlooking a bleak ocean. If you don't get that reference you don't deserve to listen to this. MySpace |
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