Description
The Barren Sleep | Released worldwide via Sliptrick Records on November 5th, 2015
Track Listing:
01. Awake | 02. No Sun | 03. Snow Stained Heart | 04. The Whitering | 05. Distant Calling | 06. Empire | 07. Hours | 08. Redemption
Band links: Official Website | Facebook | Youtube
MayanWarrior86 (verified owner) –
I happened upon this really great Italian band when the guitarist, Guilliano Marzola came to visit Korea (and he’s a very cool guy as well). Awake The Sun play a progressive, gothic sounding form of doom metal, As far as doom metal goes, I wouldn’t exactly call myself an expert in this style, though I’ve been getting used to it in the recent years.
From happening upon this band, I also got my hands on their album “The Barren Sleep” (thanks Giulliano!) While this album is labled as an EP, the songs are quite long. Thus the album as a whole is long, perhaps long enough for this to be considered as a full-length album. Then again though, a lot of grindcore full albums are like quarter the length of this album.
That said, I feel this is some really solid material. Hearing this, I feel a very melancholic atmosphere coming from this music. This isn’t as down tuned and bassy as I would expect from doom metal, instead I have a more elegant vibe from this music, which still sounds quite dark. Also, if it were down tuned like most doom metal, it might take away from the band’s unique sound.
The vocals, which are entirely clean, go really well with this music, they’re clean but still very dark and melancholic sounding. There’s lots of keyboard in this music, but they never step on the guitarists’ or the bassist’s toes as is usually the case with a lot of keyboard using bands. They’re still present and fit in really well with the rest of the music. I also like the use of the operatic vocals in the final track.
This is definitely a great album. If you’re looking for either weed-smoking doom or filthy death-doom, this may be outside your comfort zone. However, if you’re looking for a more elegant, sorrowful band along the lines of newer My Dying Bride or Paradise Lost, this might be up your alley.
Hard for me to choose a favorite track in this album, but if I had to choose one, it would probably be “Empire”. Though, no song really stands out as being better than the rest, it’s quite a consistent album throughout without any significant low points.
This is a very emotional piece of beautiful music. It has a sorrowful atmosphere yet with really sharp riffs that pierce right into your soul. If that’s the kind of stuff you’re looking for, then this is the album I would suggest for you. Definitely one of my top doom/gothic metal albums of 2015.
My Rating: 9/10
Originally written for Asia Metalhead