So, that brings us to their new album, Where the Gloom Becomes Sound. It’s been over 2 years since Down Below was released and despite it being in that previously mentioned top albums from that print publication, the choice may have had some merit. Its moody mix of gothic vibes and black metal rasps had some real staying power.

However, I must say that if you heard Down Below, you’ve basically heard Where the Gloom Becomes Sound. You already know they’re not really a black or death metal band anymore, but they more reside in the post-rock realm with black metal rasps.

That’s not to say they don’t do what they do very well. Take the opener, “In Remembrance” for example. It’s a good opener, although it’s nearly 7 minutes long and doesn’t really go anywhere. It’s mid-paced with some stellar guitar work and a repetitive refrain. However, it takes a little less than 3 minutes to get to that refrain.

The next track, “Hour of the Wolf” has a little more bounce in its step. It begins with a hummable, almost clean guitar melody and a nice “UGH.” Despite the fact that it is one of the released singles from the album, there’s not much of a hook of which to speak.

“Leviathans” is the third track on the album and has also had a video made for it. Much like a man who ate a whole lot of cheese, Centory Media is really pushing this release. Unfortunately, this track is not about how many copies they own of the Mastodon album Leviathan. It also doesn’t stand out.

Moving on and getting near the end of the record, track 9, which is called “Funeral Pyre,” begins with a far more distorted riff than much else you’ll encounter on this album. The lead work here also seems to be a bit more inspired than the rest of the tracks.

However, the closer, “The Wilderness,” has the best lead guitar work on the album with two extended solo breaks. It’s also the second-longest track. They bookended the album with the two longest tracks. That’s usually not a smart move, but also not uncommon.

The truth is that this album is fine. It’s nothing different than what these guys have done their last few times. It’s not going to change your mind about them, regardless of which side of the fence you stand. What’s holding this band back is the monotony of the vocals. Throughout the runtime, there’s no variance. With an album nearly 50 minutes, that’s an issue. I will conclude by saying I still find enjoyment in the album, but I doubt I will come back to it much this year. I’m still waiting for these guys to finally release that album of the year material.

You get 3 new songs and an orchestral cover of “Your Broken Shore”, one of the better tracks from the recent album. And unfortunately, The 3 songs are pretty much in line with the recent album quality, in that they really don’t do much for me. All three are plenty mopey and despondent, flocked with churchy keys and strings and Aaron Stainthorpe’s somber croon, but they are far from great MDB songs.

10-minute “Macabre Cabaret” sort of splits into 2 parts, the first half is a repetitive moody chant with a few growls and the last half is a meandering plod that, much like The Ghosts of Orion never quite goes anywhere or peaks.  The 6 minute “A Purse of Gold and Stars” starts with delicate pianos and gorgeous strings and Stainthorpe’s deeply emotional timbre, teasing a truly rending song, but it basically does that for the whole song. It’s beautiful, but essentially an acoustic song. another shorter song, “A Secret Kiss” is the best of the three, but still just an average MDB song. But when “Orchestral Shores (Buiksloterkerk Cathedral Mix)”, an instrumental remix of a prior song is the EPs best material, you know you are in trouble. 

In truth, not a really completely worthwhile EP, except for completionists,  though it depends on how you felt about The Ghosts of Orion, as MDB seems to be in need of an injection of creativity. The mood and sadness are there, but the riffs are just flatter than they have ever been, lacking the truly emotive, wilting heft the band is known for. Let’s hope they find it again.

Shame on you if you’re not familiar with Draconian and their brand of dark, gothic, “beauty & the beast” styled doomy death metal. I mean, they’ve only been steadily releasing albums for the past seventeen years. Though I can understand why one might have stayed on the outskirts when it comes to the band. Let’s face it, sometimes that aforementioned “beauty & the beast” tag doesn’t always bring the “heavy” when it comes to heavy metal. Yet in Draconian‘s case that isn’t necessarily true.

Since their debut album, Where Lovers Mourn, the band has had, and retained, a maturity in their craft and have always seemed to know where they were going and what they were trying to achieve. So much so that I would dare to say that their progression through the years has been one that is more of a side-stepping in their evolution than one of an aggressive move forward. A two steps to the side for every one step forward type of growth, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing at all. Some albums, and albeit songs, are a little more heavy and hard hittting than others, while some are a little more somber and beautiful; to be fair though all their material has a bit of both worlds to them.

Though Sovran brought a noticed change. Not only was the longtime “beauty” vocalist, Lisa Johansson, replaced with the ever competent Heike Langhans, but there seemed to be a slight decrease in the album’s overall “heavy” factor, yet a slight increase in the band’s songwriting and dynamics.A lofty statement considering the group’s well established knack for creating some terrific doomy goth metal. Sovran brought a sense of even more maturity to the band’s sound, a less is more aesthetic of increased beauty and sadness, but with a “we can still crush you”, mentality. In my personal opinion it’s the band’s best album, as well as one of the best representations of the gothic, beauty and the beast, vocal styled extremity available.

So, let’s get to the nitty gritty, is Under a Godless Veil a better album than the mighty Sovran? Does it best the high mark set by their prior brilliance? Is it worth your time and your hard earned cash? Well, the answers to those questions are simple. No, no, and hell yes! Just because I feel that they haven’t topped Sovran with this newest release doesn’t mean that they haven’t crafted quite a stellar piece of somber artful beauty, easily on par with Sovran, standing shoulder to shoulder in might and fortitude. While admittedly, Under a Godless Veil is even less heavy centric than past offerings, and brings an even greater focused degree of the band’s ethereal side, showcasing Heike as the primary lead vocalist much of the time, the end result is one of a compelling and fulfilling emotional nature.

From the funereal somberness of album opener, “Sorrow of Sophia”, painting a picture of haunting despair and melancholic enchantment, to closer and contender for album highlight, “Ascend into Darkness”, showcasing some truly magnificent and dolorous death-doom elegance and might, Under a Godless Veil is a stunning piece of  despondent and menacing grandeur. Though the band doesn’t really employ any new tactics or display any new attributes that haven’t been previously in their repertoire, the pay off from the material is quite alluring and heavily satisfying. Picking a definite album standout is for sure a moot task. Truthfully, anyone of the tracks on Under  a Godless Veil could rightfully be viewed as an album highlight, as each has its own identity and emotional aura attached to it.

Be it the slow, brooding crush of beauty and aggression in “The Sacrificial Flame” and “Moon over Sabaoth”, the overtly more brutal and direct death metal nature entwined within the splendor and exquisiteness of  both “The Sethian” and the “Claw Marks on the Throne”, or the stellar funeral dirge like ethereal diaphanous of “Burial Fields “or “Night Visitor”, every track is highlight worthy. Personally though, my favorite track would have to be “Sleepwalkers”. The track hits just right, showcasing a hauntingly beautiful somberness, courtesy of Heike’s vocals, with a fantastic emotionl build up, attributed to  vocalist, Anders Jacobsson, climaxing into a brilliant vocal tag team cadence within its doomy, gothic stature. The song is simple, beautiful, clean, climatic and full of emotionally heaviness. What more could you want from Draconian?

I’ll admit to not being too much impressed with Under a Godless Veil upon hearing it for the first time. For whatever the reson, the album as a whole didn’t resonate with me and I wasn’t sure that Draconian hadn’t actually stumbled with Under a Godless Veil. Though much like anything that has any real substance, all that is needed to see and appreciate the greatness present is just a bit of honest attention. In this case it was giving Under a Godless Veil the listening time it deserved. I’m sure anyone that does so will ultimately be thoroughly satisfied and content with the state of Draconian in 2020.

So out of curiosity, I checked out Thy Despair (after seeing some of the above bands mentioned in the promo email), and unfortunately, that’s not about to change. The debut from this Ukrainian male/female fronted act ( who were called Thoughts of the Desperate early in their formation) is a bit of a hot/cold affair, that sometimes hits the spot just right, but at times can be a bit cringey.

Bridging the gap between chunky melodic death metal and symphonic female fronted metal, Thy Despair is fronted by guitarist/vocalist ‘Nephilim’  who pens/plays decent, well produced riffs and has a competent growl and rasp and female crooner ‘Elin’, who has the requisite dramatic (sometimes overly) swells and  sometimes impressive operatic, soprano pipes.

And sometimes they don’t quite jive, especially early on in the album a heard in “The Last One”, and “Sabbath”, “Fear and Despair” and “Last Breath” as Elin goes a bit overboard. But occasionally the band hit on something decent such as “Burned by Love”, where even with Elin still hamming it up, the band delivers a catchy little keyboard backed romp and solo. Or stern chug of “War” and “Army of Dead” (and its deliciously hokey, but enjoyable, SCA/LARP promotional video above), where the band lock into a pretty solid last few moments. The requisite ballad “Falling Star”, actually delivers a solid slower pace with some clean male vocals added to the keyboard drenched drama.

And speaking of keyboards, Olena Navka, actually ends up as the star of the show with her playing, making even the bad songs have some nice synth backed moments. But then its back to the slightly overly done “Ghost Rider” and closer “Falcon”.

Not a bad album by any means, but the thing is despite some of the decent moments, all this album made me do is go back and listen to Dysrider’s Bury The Omen and End my Sorrow‘s …Of Ghostly Echoes.

So it was  with a little trepidation that I decided to give Obsidian a go. I’ll be honest, when it comes to Paradise Lost, I have never been a fan of their much lauded mopey rock era (Draconian Times, One Second, Symbol of Life. Host, Paradise Lost, etc), but hold the debut and Gothic in super high regard. So their newer stuff, while certainly a shift back to better ‘growlier’ times, still has strains of that era running through it and thusly has me a bit torn.

First thing I noticed, the production, once again from Jaime Gomez Arellano, is stunning, removing some of the weird, forced stoner fuzz from Medusa and delivering a clear, bottom heavy throb, especially Stephen Edmondson’s bass. Second, Paradise Lost‘s song writing has never been better in the band’s new found mix of old and new, often rivaling “Beneath Broken Earth” from The Plague Within.

Opener “Darker Thoughts” is a killer opening track, one of the best they have penned in years, and features a killer string section (which sadly rarely gets used again) backing the direct, agonizing, but catchy stomp. Second track “Fall From Grace”, is a bleak, classic mid era sounding Paradise Lost number, but adds some heft and growls. “Ghosts” is a return to the band’s later 90s offerings of Depeche Mode-y ness, but adds a satisfying level of chunk and growls, but still has me a bit on edge, as does “The Devil Embraced” which starts a bit weak, but then throws in some excellent, crushing doom to the proceedings.

“Forsaken”, while a definite pure throwback to the band’s more growl-less, commercial tones, is bolstered by the production and a catchy riff straight from their mid 90s offerings. “Serenity” has a killer, confident, despondent groove similar to the album’s opener and has Holmes growling for the whole song, which will please many fans. The somber, more delicate duo of “Ending Days” (where the strings section briefly comes back) and snoozer “Hope Dies Young” deliver a late album lull into more ballad-y realms, before “Ravenghast” ends the album with dramatic, crawling, rending closure.

The box set and digipack version of the album comes with 2 bonus tracks in “Hear the Night” , which is actually a really good doomy, throwback sounding Paradise Lost track for a throwaway bonus track, and “Defiler” which is a pretty weak, afterthought feeling type bonus track.

Much like their compatriots in gloom, My Dying Bride, Paradise Lost is in the middle of a killer third act combining old and new sounds. But where as My Dying Bride‘s The Ghost of Orion, fell a bit flat, Obsidian shows Paradise Lost is arguably at the top of their game again.

Since beginning his professional music career 20 years ago, the guy has been a part of, if not directly responsible for 23 different record releases, spread between 7 different bands – all this while still having enough time to hit the gym and maintain his status as one of metal’s most swole musicians. Heavy metal, indeed!

Now, 14 years after the band’s first and only release, The Darkness, Saukkonen circles back to one of his more obscure projects Dawn of Solace – providing all instrumentals to the record while singer Mikko Heikkila of Kaunis Kuolematon and Black Sun Aeon handles vocal duties.

To anyone more acquainted with Tuomas’ Wolfheart or earlier work with Before the Dawn, Waves might come as a bit of a surprise, offering up a gothic-tinged, doomier sound more akin to My Dying Bride or Katatonia than the more melodeath stylings of those previous projects. But anyone familiar with Saukkonen will certainly recognize his signature melodic guitar work here.  After a light, lengthy intro on album opener “Lead Wings,” Saukkonen launches into a familiar mix – combining a thick, hefty guitar backbone with soaring, emotive melodies that carry a definitively Finnish feeling of melancholy. Things round off with an impressive solo that is, again, thoroughly Saukkonen-ian… en…

Another Finnish/Saukkonen-ian trademark is thoroughly abundant on this record – it’s fucking catchy. Weather it’s the legendary Sentenced or Amorphis, or more contemporary examples like Ghost Brigade or Insomnium, the Finns have unmatched knack for making the bleak and desolate sound so damn inviting. This album is chuck full of hooks and melodies that will undoubtedly worm their way into your brain for some time – “Hiding” and the triumphant “Choice” serving as prime examples. Moodier tracks like “Ashes” and “Numb” manage to convey a feeling of particular dread while still maintaining a certain confidence that suggest finding strength amongst all the doom and gloom.

If the album contains any missteps, they’re pretty minor. Mikko Heikkila delivers a competent, if unremarkable vocal performance. It lends itself just fine with Tuomas’ musical efforts, but doesn’t really do much to heighten any of the album’s emotional waves (pun absolutely intended). Album closer “Ghost” is a beautifully somber number, featuring Heikkila’s vocals over a lone piano, but may have been better served to break up the album somewhere in the middle of it’s run, rather than seeing it out.

Tuomas Saukkonen may not be as widely regarded or recognized as the Devin Townsends or Peter Tagtgrens of the metal world, but for 20 years he has quietly built himself a career as prolific as any musician you could think of; Waves being yet another quality notch in his lifting belt, one filled the kinds of hooks that will keep you coming back to this one for some time. Another fine effort from metal’s busiest strongman.

So what we have here is mildly aggressive mopey, doomy mid paced death metal with keyboards, gothic tones and lots of gloomy atmospheres and and riffs and song titles like ” Lamentation of the Lost Soul”, Sleep of Eternity” and “Where Freezing Spirits Fall”.  What it lacks it bite it makes up for in mood and purely mid 90s aura , including the musty, dry, but authentic (and analog) production  and Jari Filppu’s pained , raspy howls and growls with melancholy lead work that really imbues Rotting Christ‘s A Triarchy of Lost Lovers and  A Dead Poem era.

My feelings on the album are a bit torn as I kinda dug the sound back in the day but it was also mixed with heaps of disappointment at bands changing their sound, but there are definitely some poignant downtrodden moments that really seem like they were recovered from some lost 1994 time capsule like the opening strains of “Delusions Ad Astra”, delicate, morose melodies of “Scent of Venus” and “The Hourglass Infernal”, and its sweeping mopey keyboards and bombastic drums.

Almost nine minute album closer “”Where Freezing Spirits Fall” encompasses the band and the nostalgic sound with an dreary, doomy gait with just a hint of hope dancing in the melodic guitar lines that end the album on a wilting high note. In all, a decent rel;ease that takes you back in time to a weird, divisive and experimental time in metal, and depending on what you thought of that era will determine how you feel about this album.