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Reviews
Draconian: Turning season within
16/04/08 || Global Domination
If I wasn’t a sucker for most of the different ramifications of doom metal, even the goth-tinged, chick-fronted ones, I’d cave in and concede that bands like Draconian are capable of boring people to fucken tears. This is music that sticks to a fairly defined songwriting formula, yet I can’t complain about it if it entertains me, and that’s exactly what it fucken does. “Turning Season Within” is the band’s fourth full-length, and it’s very similar to previous efforts, yet still pleasing stuff to listen every once in a while, when I’m in the mood for it.
Basically, Draconian mixes a healthy dose of My Dying Bride, Novembers Doom, late Katatonia and marked gothic influences, ending up with a sound that is not too original, but well played and decently composed. Four albums into their career, you can still feel the weight of these influences on the band’s shoulders, but somehow they’re starting to transcend into a style more personal. Besides, if you are going to draw inspiration from some source, why not do so from the fucken best? You’ve got to start somewhere, with some points of reference. Only geniuses invent new musical genres from thin air, and while being a very competent outfit, Draconian are not geniuses.
These Swedes combine some mournful keyboard melodies, painful, echoing riffs, acoustic noodling and two outstanding vocalists, suitable elements to their style. And it’s not fucken exaggeration about the vocals: the deadly, quality growling of Anders Jacobsson and the excellent soaring voice of Lisa Johansson, complement each other in one of the best “beauty-and-the-beast” arrangements I’ve ever heard. These two are undoubtedly the best assets of the band. The spoken word passages are courtesy of a guest appearance by Paul Kuhr, the talented frontman of Novembers Doom. By the way, it’s not all about lost love lamentations and sadness wankery, the band is not afraid to let go when the song calls for it and launch into some crushing doom segments.
While I still prefer their second album, 2004’s “Arcane Rain Fell”, over the rest of their stuff, and 2006’s “The Burning Halo” was not too shabby either, I can’t say “Turning Season Within” is an effort below the band’s standards. It’s nicely constructed, has plenty of decent tunes, like my favorite cuts so far “When I Wake”, “The Failure Ephiphany”, “Bloodflower” and “The Empty Stare”. Bottom line, it just won’t appeal to everyone. At least, Draconian has become a fairly identifiable band, thanks to their amazing vocal work and the fact that slowly but surely they seem to be crafting a sound of their own within the doom genre.
7 doom-mongering “love-death-sadness” merchants out of 10.
- Information
- Released: 2008
- Label: Napalm Records
- Website: www.draconian.se
- Band
- Anders Jacobsson: vocals
- Lisa Johansson: vocals
- Johan Ericson: guitars
- Daniel Arvidsson: guitars
- Fredrik Johansson: bass
- Jerry Torstensson: drums
- Tracklist
- 01. Seasons Apart
- 02. When I Wake
- 03. Earthbound
- 04. Not Breathing
- 05. The Failure Ephiphany
- 06. Morphine Cloud
- 07. Bloodflower
- 08. The Empty Stare
- 09. September Ashes