Style: Heavy metal, Doom metal, Folk metal, Progressive metal (clean vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Sumerlands, Witchcraft, A.A. Williams
Review by: Doug
Country: UK
Release date: 30 September, 2022
This rather eclectic mix of stylistic elements comes to us from Northern Ireland, combining the rich and distorted guitar tone of traditional heavy metal with doom metal tremolo and lyrics drawn from pagan spirituality, with any other influences the band members could get their hands on thrown in for good measure. The result is a metal mélange summarized by the band themselves as “dark metal,” but such a simple term belies the complexity that Darkest Era achieve in their carefully mixed palette. Wither On The Vine displays a deep melancholy atmosphere accented by the band’s well-chosen stylistic fusions and ultimately brought to life by highly capable performances and excellent production, but such focus on tone and atmosphere prevents the melodic elements from being as polished.
Right from track one, the atmosphere deeply enfolds the listener in dense curtains of dark energy. Every element lies under a muted, hazy doom metal shroud that produces soft and subtle tones perfect for the oncoming autumn in the northern hemisphere as the leaves fade to brown and night falls earlier each evening. “One Thousand Years Of Night” specifically leans most on the traditional heavy metal end of Darkest Era’s scintillating spectrum of influences, but the opener nevertheless settles comfortably into the prevailing feelings of desolation and loneliness that define the rest of the album. By the third song, “A Path Made Of Roots,” we see in full bloom the core style of Wither On The Vine: it develops slowly, with long sections of sustained tremolo reminiscent of post-metal and matching somber vocals that hold each note as long as it will bear.
What really sells me on Darkest Era’s genre chemistry experiment is their presentation. In terms of production and performance, every element is top-notch and they all work together in harmonious concert toward the common goal of producing emotive and immersive metal. Mononymous vocalist Krum shows off a strong range of vocal tones, from a low mournful baritone sometimes reminiscent of Eric Socia (ex-Tanagra) to a more traditional metal tenor brimming with energy. He even incorporates some moments of harder and edgier delivery (such as on “Floodlands”); each vocal style is expertly woven throughout the album as best suits the present moment of the music. The rhythm trifecta of guitars, drums, and bass lays down an intoxicating undercurrent of hard-hitting tremolo and double-pedal bass drum, long sustained chords, and crunchy supplemental melodies to support the varied main vocal line; again, the production achieves an impeccable level of distorted fuzz over the whole thing.
Although all the parts fit together tonally, the melodies, whether carried by vocals or guitar, don’t reach the same depth as the atmospheric backing components and well-balanced production. Exemplified by the song “Tithonus,” Darkest Era’s melodic composition just can’t keep up with the compelling atmosphere constructed by the rest of the music. Most of the melodies are disappointingly simplistic, lacking interesting hooks or complementary harmonic lines. The band’s impressively varied influences should provide a wide array of compositional techniques with which to build engagement, and in places that comes through, such as long-hold vocal harmonies in the middle section of “The Collapse” or the more relaxed and friendly vocal performance on the title-track closer. Aside from those exceptions, though, Darkest Era don’t embrace these opportunities and instead produce something much less interesting than the style should allow. All the effort seems to have gone into producing atmosphere; while that effort is certainly successful, the neglect of other aspects prevents Wither On The Vine from truly satisfying the expectations laid on what otherwise promises to be an ambitious work of music.
One of my favorite aspects of the progressive metal scene is getting to hear new combinations of musical influences. Darkest Era perhaps don’t truly chart new territory, but their approach is unfamiliar enough to tickle those novelty receptors deep in my brain. If you’re a fan of atmospheric composition, Wither On The Vine has almost as much as you could ever want. In the end, though, the album doesn’t capitalize fully on the rich soil sown with the many seeds of “dark metal,” its lacking melodies letting down the musical traditions from which the endeavor sprouted.
Recommended tracks: A Path Made Of Roots, The Collapse, The Ashen Plague, Wither On The Vine
You may also like: Besvärjelsen, Hail the Void, Lightning Born, Dark Forest
Final verdict: 7/10
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Official Website | YouTube | Facebook | Instagram | Metal-Archives page
Label: Candlelight Records – Bandcamp | Website | Facebook
Darkest Era is:
– Krum (vocals)
– Ade Mulgrew (guitars)
– Sarah Wieghell (guitars)
– Daniel O’Toole (bass)
– Cameron Åhslund-Glass (drums)
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