Review Summary: Absolute beauty. So sorrowful, melodic, and crushing...
Over the past few months, I've come to realize something about myself musically. In the past, I could listen to death metal albums that received exceedingly high amounts of praise, yet I couldn't seem get the same amount of enjoyment out of them that everybody else did. Don't get me wrong, I liked death metal (and still do,) but the genre as a whole just didn't have the same impact on me that I was hoping it would when I first got into it. In a desperate attempt to find music that I would both enjoy listening to, and that would stick with me after listening, I stumbled across a band called, "Dark Tranquillity." When I first listened to their 2007 effort
Fiction, I was blown away to say the least. After listening to just the first two songs, I instantly knew that I had never heard anything in my life that had that much musical appeal to me. It quickly became apparent to me that the amount of melody in the music was really what captivated me so intensely. Shortly there after, I began to explore further, discovering band like Insomnium, Ensiferum, At the Gates, and many more. Just recently, I was reading on a metal forum about a melodic doom band called "Swallow the Sun," who were apparently able to fuse elements of melodic death metal and doom metal together to create extremely, sad, dark, and depressing music. Since anything that's labeled as "melodic," provokes my interest, I naturally decided to give one of their albums a listen. I searched the band on Spotify, and saw that the album
Hope was their most popular. I turned up my speakers, sat back, and listened. Now, not too long after, I'm here to tell you about one of my new favorite melodic metal albums of all time.
All it takes is one look at the album artwork and the band logo to know what you're getting yourself into. Well, I'm not sure if that would be a completely accurate statement, seeing as how this album creates an experience unlike anything else that any other doom metal can replicate. Upon hearing the first few seconds of the opening track, you are completely engrossed in the atmosphere. Imagine a dark, rainy forest in which you are totally isolated, helpless, and alone. This is not too far from the pictorial image that this album creates. Although it may sound like a bunch of cheese when written out, I promise you, it's a truly immersive experience. Not once throughout the entire, one-hour journey does any aspect of any of the music get even remotely upbeat, and that's what I think makes this album so unique. The remarkable sense of dread that it's able to conjure up.
Although extremely sad, this album is also brutally heavy. Phenomenally produced drums and heavily distorted guitars manage to bring the heaviness of traditional melodic death metal, and even straight up death metal, into the formula. I know I've used the word
heavy multiple times in the past two sentences, but it's honestly the only word I can find to describe the guitar tones and the drums. The riffing is also a key factor in this album. Unlike most doom metal, which features one guitar chord of a minor scale on beat one of every measure at 50 BPM, leads are kept interesting through brilliantly crafted melodic chord progressions throughout the entirety of the album. Assuming I've done an exceptionally decent job describing this album so far, you should be getting an idea of just how fantastic it is.
Touching on the heaviness that I mentioned in the previous paragraph, transitions are absolutely flawless. Build ups aren't used in excess, but rather in a perfectly regulated quantity that keeps the listener wondering when the next one is going to be. Also, said build ups usually lead to brutal choruses, which are surely headbanging material. To be completely honest, it's hard to listen to the down-tuned chords and merciless vocals of the choruses without moving along in some way. One more thing that I feel needs to be stressed is the implementation of different tempos. You heard me right. This is doom metal, and they actually use varying tempos. Now, this obviously doesn't mean that you have blast beats and chugging riffs left and right, it just means that now and again, you'll heard a double time interlude or something of that nature. A great example of this would be with the intro of the second track,
These Hours of Despair.
To summarize everything that I've attempted to put into words here, this album is great. Really great. If you're a fan of melodic metal, doom metal, or just good, atmospheric music in general, this is a must-have. Everything that you could ever want musically is here. Sad, beautiful instrumentation, fantastic lyrics, and incredibly immersive atmosphere. I can wholeheartedly say that this is one of the greatest melodic doom metal albums out there (or at least that I've heard, anyways). So as soon as you can, pick this album up. You won't be disappointed!
Pros
- Fantastic production
- Absolutely beautiful instrumentation
- Unique, interesting, melodic leads
- Br00talness 10/10
- Flawless transitions
- Immersive, captivating atmosphere
Cons
- Even though I mentioned varying tempos, the majority of the album is right around the same tempo, which can get a bit monotonous after a while.
Recommended Tracks
- Every track. They're all equally amazing.
