March 2021 Feature Release – The Fallen Edition

So just like that we find that a new month is upon us which of course means that we’ll be nominating a brand new monthly feature release for each clan. This essentially means that we’re asking you to rate, review & discuss our chosen features for no other reason than because we enjoy the process & banter. We’re really looking forward to hearing your thoughts on our chosen releases so don’t be shy.

This month’s feature release for The Fallen has been nominated by Sonny. It's 1998's classic sophomore album from English doom/heavy metal outfit Solstice entitled "New Dark Age".

https://metal.academy/releases/3343

Strangely, I'd never given "New Dark Age" a spin before a couple of days ago but I'm glad that I did now because I really dig it. Not all of it mind you but the overall majority. It took a few listens to really dig it's teeth in though, particularly given that I don't like the opener "The Sleeping Tyrant" much which, given its eleven minute duration, tended to leave my defenses up for the rest of the album until I could get used to its overall quality.

Solstice are fairly hard to categorize in my opinion. Are they doom metal? Yeah, sometimes. Are they heavy metal? Well... yeah... they are at times too. But I'd suggest that their sound doesn't sit all that well under either banner as they're more up-tempo & melodic than you would usually expect from a doom metal band. There's an obvious NWOBHM influence about them with the twin-guitar harmonies of Iron Maiden providing plenty of inspiration but they also possess a down-tuned heaviness that simultaneously defies the heavy metal label. I guess that's why people came up with the epic doom tag but, despite the epic characteristics of some of this material, I don't really think it's necessary to be honest. The traditional doom metal tag was created to cover a heavy metal infused doom sound & I think it would have served the purpose just fine here too.

"New Dark Age" is an album of peaks & troughs in my opinion but thankfully the peaks significantly outweigh the troughs. To my ears it's the more heavy metal focused numbers that offer the least appeal with the previously mentioned "The Sleeping Tyrant" & the equally disappointing "Hammer Of Damnation" seeing me struggle to engage. The ten minute epic "Cromlech" has a little more success but still never manages to get my blood pumping like the doomier material. The rest of the album is absolutely top notch though with the short interlude style folk inspired pieces adding a hefty dose of atmosphere  & the crushing doom monsters like "Cimmerian Codex" & twelve minute album highlight "New Dark Age II" seeing me pummeled by gargantuan riffage of the highest order. I do find Morris Ingram's vocals to be a little underwhelming though if I'm honest. He's not bad as such but definitely lacks the power, charisma & talent required to take Solstice to the elite level in my opinion. He sounds much better over the doom & folk material than he does over the more traditional heavy metal tracks where a more potent vocal force was required to accentuate the song-writing. The lead guitar work could also have been better & I'm left with the feeling that the dual guitar attack were working within their own technical limitations.

Still... when taken in holistically I find "New Dark Age" to be a very enjoyable & quite varied listen. I actually think that some of the less substantial clean tracks like "Alchemiculte" & "Blackthorne" sit amongst the best inclusions & this makes up for the less appealing metal moments that champion a more melodic metal sound than I'm comfortable with, even hinting at melodeath or folk metal inspiration on occasion. I was definitely expecting something more consistently doomy but I'll no doubt settle for the slightly unexpected yet no less appealing result.

For fans of Candlemass, Atlantean Kodex & While Heaven Wept.

4/5

It should go without saying at this point that I am a huge mark for the band Agalloch and their blend of folk and post-metal. So it should be taken as the highest of praise when I say that this album is what I imagine Agalloch would sound like if they were a traditional doom band.

Now The Mantle was still a few years away at the time. Hell, Pale Folklore was still a year away at the time, but it wouldn't surprise me if Agalloch listened to this album as inspiration. It is a joy to hear Solstice harken to traditional English folk tunes to go along with a sound that is not that far removed from a band as recent as Spirit Adrift. The justification for long songs through expansive growth and swelling through "The Sleeping Tyrant" and "Hammer of Damnation" is remarkable. The mixing is superb and the melodic phrases in both the guitars and vocals are very well put together and interwoven.

9/10

Sometime in the late 2000s, back in my pre-internet days when I still paid attention to the music press, one of the metal mags, Terrorizer or Metal Hammer probably, ran a doom metal special. In this issue, they got several reasonably well-known musicians to name their favourite three doom metal albums. Somebody (I forget who but it must have been someone I had time for) listed Winter's Into Darkness, Warning's Watching From A Distance and this, Solstice's second album. Deciding to investigate further, I tracked down CD copies of all three (no streaming or downloading for me back then) and fuck me if they didn't become three of my all-time, rock-solid five-star faves. So thank you eternally o forgotten metal muso.

I have already reviewed the album, so I'll not go on, but Solstice are a band who revel in their Englishness and particularly the medieval, battle-worn myths of heroes stood atop wind-blown keeps and riding among the rolling hills of forgotten history with their huge white chalk figures - an aesthetic which, being a bit of an English history nut, appeals to me immensely.

The songs themselves are, for me, the apogee of "traditional doom metal" and in particular the more epic side of the genre as exemplified by The Sleeping Giant, Hammer of Damnation and Cromlech, where Rich Walker and Hamish Glencross' dual guitar attack brings a Maidenesque bite to their massive heavy metal-derived doom riffs. For those looking for slower "true" doom there are the imperious Cimmerian Codex and the crushing New Dark Age II. Amongst all this metal madness, particularly in the heart of the album, are a number of folky acoustic arrangements, which are exemplified by the wistful and reflective Blackthorne.

The rhythm section of Rich Budby and Chaz Netherwood are the deep-dug foundation in which these monstrous metal edifices are built and their contribution is not to be underestimated. I also really like Morris Ingram's vocals, even though he is a little reedy. He wavers in a couple of spots but the backing vocals that track the lead provide a splint that prevents them becoming off-putting (I also kind of expect doom metal vocalists to be imperfect - Albert Witchfinder or Lee Dorrian for example). Finally there are the lyrics - Rich Walker must have swallowed a thesaurus before he wrote them as they are as dense and arcane as any you may find. "Ice locked the nexus, an empire awaits, Axiom abhorrent, protean triumvirate". Indeed!

For me the exemplar of traditional doom and a great example of a truly English metal album. I must have listened to it seven or eight times this week and I never tire of it. 5/5 definitely.

I can't place exactly why, but I didn't care for this. After the 3rd listen it didn't even feel like one of those albums where I understand why I "should" enjoy it; there's just something about it that rubs me the wrong way. I think Daniel saying "For fans of Atlantean Kodex" is the best explanation I can give, because that band makes me feel the exact same way. There's something about the incessant, soaring lead vocals that just ruins the sound for me, even though the doomy chugs and softer acoustic sections are well written. I can't really say much more than that because I don't quite get why this is bouncing off of me so hard, but it just is. The back half of the album from "Blackthorne" on keeps me much more interested than the front half, although it's still kind of hard to sit through the 15-minute closer. I'll have to come back to this one in a few weeks or months to see if I'm still just clueless on what to think about this one. 

3/5