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Reviews
Depressed Mode: ...for death
09/07/09 || Global Domination
It seems there is hope for some of these bands that send us their latest after all, who would have thought? Depressed Mode is definitely one of the very few that actually sound like they know what they’re doing. Contrary to my usual experiences when sitting through most of these so-called “albums” we get, listening to “…For Death” has been pleasant and entertaining, even if there is a certain déjà vu feel to it. I have indeed listened to similar stuff before, but to my ears “…For Death” is extremely well constructed and executed.
To summarize their songwriting, I’d say Depressed Mode plays an intelligent mixture of doom and death with gothic influences, a style well known by all which was obnoxiously popular a few years ago. Remember Theater of Tragedy, Tristania and their like? Yep, that kind of music, but this time with a bit more death and gloom thrown into the mix, thanks fuck. And from what I gather when I listen to their heavier moments, they have been listening to Septic Flesh too. There are no better influences than the Greek masters to have for a band intending to make this particular style work out in original ways.
The usual suspect elements are in place when you analyze the record. We have haunting female vocals with a counterpart growling monster: Natalie Koskinen has a nice voice, quietly sinister in its beauty, while Ossy Salonen growling hits the guttural lows quite well and stick to range on his occasional clean vox passages. The heavy use of keyboards and classical orchestrations is ever present, and quite tastefully done. The keyboards weave themselves into complex melodies that speak of doom and tragedy. The forceful riffs in the best traditions of doom/death that permeate most of the songs, together with the thunderous heaviness of the rhythm section, make up for a balanced blend of classical finesse, the aggression of death and the despair of doom.
Depressed Mode also excels at building up the fitting atmospheres around the songs, never failing to evoke the gloomier moods from the spectrum. The crunchy opener “Death Multiplies”, “Loving a Shadow”, “A Glimpse of Tomorrow” and the excellent closer “…For Death” showcase the band at their best: ethereal yet with the right dose of violence.
All things said and done, this is an enjoyable record, you know? There’s nothing blatantly wrong with it that you can point out, except maybe that it becomes a bit uniform at some points, where the tracks sort of blur together. There are enough moments worth noticing though, and that makes me think these guys got the potential to become a force in the genre, especially if they tone down the gothic factor just a bit, and work on incorporating yet more death and funeral doom into their songs. Nicely done, Finns! I’ll be watching you…
7 gothic goats of the frozen doom out of 10.
- Information
- Released: 2009
- Label: Firedoom Music
- Website: www.depressedmode.net
- Band
- Ossy Salonen: vocals, keyboards
- Natalie Koskinen: vocals
- Tomppa Turpeinen: guitars
- Teemu Heinola: guitars
- Henri Hakala: bass
- Iiro Aittokoski: drums
- Tracklist
- 01. Death Multiplies
- 02. She’s Frozen
- 03. Loving a Shadow
- 04. The Scent
- 05. Prologue to the Thousand Skies
- 06. Tunnel of Pain
- 07. A Glimpse of Tomorrow
- 08. A Sigh…
- 09. …For Death