Review Summary: Close your eyes and slip away.
Bands such as Sadness tread a very fine line. In the process of trying to create atmosphere, they can end up boring the listener by not being able to hold their attention. Not only that, but groups of this nature can be too much for certain people in terms of tone and atmosphere. Being a depressive/atmospheric metal band, Sadness create soundscapes mainly through their use of piano and guitar. But what Sadness do differently from many of their contemporaries is that they prefer to allow their songs to grow naturally, as evidenced by the track lengths on
The Rain That Falls Alone.
Starting as it means to go on, the album introduces us to a sombre piano piece entitled “Bewailing The Saturnine Moonlight”. It is the shortest track on the album but it serves its purpose perfectly in the time it is allocated. Aside from the aforementioned piano, distant screams can be heard in the background, like they had gone missing and are begging to be found again. They don’t necessarily play a significant part in the track and they only appear a few times, but they add greatly to the feeling of isolation and loneliness that album conveys so well.
The following track “A Tapestry Of Winter Wolves” is a different beast entirely, opening with detached violins and the what almost sounds like religious chants, morphing into pained cries. If there’s one thing Sadness do perfectly, it’s that they completely sell the idea of being alone in a forest, away from humanity or any signs of life. The thought can be overwhelming and Sadness fully take advantage of it. The changes throughout are extremely subtle but like any good atmospheric black metal band should, they don’t rush things and allow their pieces to grow. At around the half way point the insanity grinds to a halt and Sadness strip away all of the elements that had been introduced previously, displaying nothing but a lugubrious violin. It may be emotionally overwhelming but it’s short lived and before you know it, you’re back in the forest, surrounded by the darkness. The religious chants are back with a vengeance and they’re as torturous and unrelentingly disturbing as ever. However like a light at the end of the tunnel, the piano from before returns to guide us away from the looming darkness. For an album that many people would refer to as black metal, there is a lot of piano but it adds so much to the album and gives it a grandiose and imposing feel. On paper
The Rain That Falls Alone sounds completely inaccessible, so it’s surprising that once it begins to unravel and slowly reveal itself, you can’t help but listen on (possibly out of fear that you may miss a bold section of music, lying just around the corner).
The title track is a 21 minute mammoth of melancholy keyboards, terrifying soundscapes that slowly engulf your senses and distorted shrieks that don’t quite make their way to the forefront. Just before you have accepted your fate and are about to be lost in oblivion, the album comes full circle and you are greeted by a familiar face in the form of the piano that introduced the album, a sign of relief and the reassurance of knowing you aren’t alone.
By not having any vocals,
The Rain That Falls Alone has to create the feelings it is trying to convey solely through instrumentation. It’s a resounding success and makes for an experience that may be upsetting for the listener, but somehow you can’t help but return to it. The music is an accurate representation of the cover art and it’s a must for fans of depressive atmospheric black metal. Sadness’ instrumentation may not be very complex, but it doesn’t have to be, it just needs to repeat itself but add minor changes over time that add to the ambiance. All that is required is patience, and the album will surely pull you into its tortured world of darkness.
