Album Review: Dawn Of Solace - Flames Of Perdition

The temperature is barely above twenty degrees, the ground is covered by snow, and I can hear ice crunching under my feet every time I leave the house. Yes, this is the perfect time to be listening to a depressing, doom-laden album. I have complained in the past about bands putting out records at the wrong time of year, but I do it for a good reason. Everything about the circumstances when we listen to a new album matters; the time, the place, our mood. And that includes the weather as well. A sunny pop album will have a harder time making its desired impact in the midst of the winter blues, nor will a depressing album be as effective when we're basking in the summer sunshine. Thankfully, Dawn Of Solace has the right idea with this one.

This brand of doom is not the crushing variety, wherein it feels like depression is hammering away at your skull with a hammer. No, this is a more reflective and melancholy variety of doom, where dark thoughts slowly eat away at the shores of your happiness. Sometimes, you get caught up in the serenity of the sound, not realizing what is happening until too much of yourself is already gone.

Like Katatonia, Dawn Of Solace builds a beautiful atmosphere in which to suffocate us. The guitars sound restrained, lazily lulling us to sleep, while the vocals follow along. Everything is designed to put the best possible spin on a hopeless situation, lining the coffin with the plushest of velvet. The strings in the crescendo of the opening "White Noise" are subtle, but just enough to heighten the emotional state. The doom isn't overwhelming and impossible to shake, but rather a gentle whisper haunting us from the distance.

Now, the construction of these songs around atmosphere instead of riffs means two things. First, it means the album is consistent from beginning to end. Second, it means the album really is more of a singular piece of work than a collection of songs. You hear the ebbs and flows as the music and melodies swell in volume when the time calls, but picking out the details of one song from the next is going to be a bit more difficult, and require a lot more listening than perhaps we would normally be expecting. That is an observation, not necessarily a criticism, by the way.

Because the guitars are centered on chords instead of riffs, and the vocals don't have the most powerful personality, the mood is the prevailing sentiment of the record. When it's done this well, that isn't a bad thing. This sound is engaging and inviting, even if it is asking us to dance in the shadows. This is where we can still feel the silver lining in the black cloud, even if it is frozen to our touch. Compared to what most doom asks of us, the distinction is wide enough to be its own genre.

So if I didn't say much about the details of this record, it's because I think there is something more important to talk about. "Flames Of Perdition" is an album that tries to put us in a certain frame of mind, and at least with the confluence of circumstances when I first listened to it, the goal was achieved. They have absolutely nailed the concept of beautiful doom, giving us a record that's a soothing pat on the back even if things aren't going to be ok. Their comeback album was good, but this is on another level.