March 2024 Feature Release - The Fallen Edition

Another month flies by, which means it's time to select a new feature release for The Fallen. As it's my turn to choose, I've gone with Slumber's Fallout from 2004. Like Rapture's Futile (which I selected previously as a Fallen feature), Slumber's sole album owes much to Katatonia's Brave Murder Day while encroaching into melodic death metal territory. But like both of those aforementioned releases, Fallout really nails what it sets out to achieve. It's an emotional album for me, and I hope at least someone else finds it as effective as I do.

It would be great to read what you all think of it either below or in review format.

https://metal.academy/releases/9932

Here is my original (brief) review of this and I must admit to being somewhat underwhelmed. Still, this was more than four years ago, so I will endeavour to re-listen to it during the month and see if my opinion has changed during the intervening, pandemic-ridden years.

 "Slumber were a Swedish band who released this, their only full-length album, in 2004. The band split in 2011, the members forming progressive metal band Atoma immediately afterwards. Fallout features melodic death doom metal with a hefty dose of symphonic metal trappings such as keyboards and choral backing vocals. The growling main vocals seem to buried down in the mix and are somewhat smothered by the clean-sounding guitar and the keyboards. There also seems to be an inordinate amount of cymbal mixed quite high that I found quite intrusive and distracting.

Generally, I find this gothic / symphonic version of death doom metal leaves me a little underwhelmed - I prefer my death doom to be more melancholy or abyssal-sounding and less bombastic. So whilst recognising that a lot of doom metal afficianados think highly of this, I've got to confess that it's not really for me."

3/5

Here's my review:

I believe it was my younger brother Ben that first brought Sweden's Slumber to my attention many years ago as he's been quite a fan of the band's sole full-length "Fallout" for a long time now. Slumber was a talented six-piece outfit that only got the chance to put out the one proper release in their nine years of existence which would seem to be a shame based on the evidence here. You see, "Fallout" presents a band with a fully realised sound that clearly already knew who they were & what they aspired to be. Their audience clearly "get it" too as "Fallout" has gone on to become somewhat of a classic release for the doom/death genre over the couple of decades since.

"Fallout" sees Slumber dishing out a sound that's a little difficult to pigeon-hole into a single, well-fitting subgenre. The most commonly used option is doom/death which I agree with but I've never been 100% comfortable with my position on that given that... well... you'll find that it's not particularly doomy if you give it any level of scrutiny. But neither can I find a better fitting tag so it's as good a description as any I guess. The other factor is just how melodic "Fallout" is which sees people tending to label it as melodic doom/death which is getting a lot closer to the truth. People that try to push it into melodeath territory are certainly clutching at straws though because I don't hear any genuine death metal on display here. I do however pickup quite a bit of gothic metal in the instrumentation, production & clean vocals so there's a case for a secondary tag there for sure.

The production job on "Fallout" is wonderfully clean, bright & expansive &, in many ways, represents one of the defining elements in Slumber's appeal. There's no doubt that Slumber are a little more melodic than I would usually go for but it's hard not to see yourself caving in to the attractive packaging the song-writing is draped in here. The other major selling point is the musicianship which is spectacular throughout with all band members being well in control of their instruments & pushing themselves creatively. Bass player Mikael Brunqvist is worthy of particular mention as I find his contribution to be the high point of the album with his clean tone & confident & melodically in-tune backing adding an additional layer of professionalism to an already pretty impressive platform. Front man Siavosh Bigonah's death growls are perhaps not quite so emphatically successful but I wouldn't say that he has a negative impact on the outcome as such. It's just that his death "growls" sound more like death "barks" a lot of the time.

The more uptemo songs like "Conflict" & closer "A Wanderer's Star" tend to offer me a little less appeal than the heavier material but there are no weak tracks included here. The title track is the obvious highlight though with it's Katatonia-inspired melodic theme possessing the sort of ear-worms that have kept me in awe of a record like "Brave Murder Day" for so many years. Opener "Rapture" & "Distress" are probably my other picks of the bunch but "Where Nothing Was Left" & "Dreamscape" are very solid efforts as well. You see, there's very little to complain about with a record like "Fallout" if you're drawn to full-realised & well-executed extreme metal music. It's all just so damn impressive in its achievement of its chosen goal which makes me want to like it more than my taste profile would generally allow for.

If you're the type of extreme metal fan that tends to angle towards the more melodic side of the scene then "Fallout" should be a complete no-brainer because it's very much tailored to you & your musical preferences but I'd hate to think that people will allow comments like that to limit the potential for them to check this record out either because it's won this battle-hardened extremist over pretty comfortably. Finland's Rapture, fellow Swedes Enshine & Amercians Daylight Dies are probably the best points of comparison I can think of at the moment & if those artists already feature pretty prominently in your Spotify world then I hold very few fears of "Fallout" not playing an active role there for some time into the future as well as it's a very solid & accomplished example of the melodic doom/death sound.

4/5

Gave this another couple of playthroughs on this morning's walk and my position on it hasn't really changed. I still feel it leans towards the lighter and more melodic end of the death doom spectrum, with nods to the gothic tendencies of My Dying Bride and their ilk, whereas I prefer the more crushing, cavernous end occupied by the likes of Coffins, Cianide or Evoken. There isn't anything inherently wrong with it and it is competently put together with a high standard of songwriting and musicianship. The problem I have is that it just doesn't really resonate with me or move me inside and whilst I can often appreciate the quality of a recording, if it doesn't engage me on an emotional level or provide a metaphorical gut-punch, then it will always be lacking in my book.

I did actually find myself digging on final track "A Wanderer's Star" more than I remember having done previously, but mostly Fallout just washed over me. I wouldn't necessarily turn it off if it was on, but I would be unlikely to actively seek it out. I will have to stick with my original 3/5 rating, I'm afraid. Sorry Ben.

No need to be sorry. Every music listener will find certain albums / styles more compelling than others. It would be boring if everyone had the exact same tastes.