Review: Lamentations – Passion of Depression

Style: Progressive Metal, Death Metal (Mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Black Crown Initiate, Persefone
Review by: Christopher
Country: Singapore/USA
Release date: 8 November, 2022

Here at the Progressive Subway, we all have our specialisms. Our founder Sam is a power metal lover at heart, Zach is our resident prog-death nerd, what Mathis doesn’t know about metalcore and melodic djent isn’t worth knowing, and Andy is in his element when recommending to the rest of us obscure avant-garde black metal and Mexican folk music. We all do our best to review music out of our comfort zones (well, all of us except Zach who we have to Clockwork Orange into taking albums he doesn’t like), but there’s one area I’ve avoided due to a lack of familiarity: tech-death. So I asked Andy to recommend me a tech-death album to review. He didn’t have one, so suggested Lamentations instead, a more typical prog death outfit, a subgenre I’m more familiar with.

Formerly from Singapore and now based in the USA, Lamentations’ sophomore album Passion of Depression is, according to the band, “a cinematic concept album that portrays the pain, pleasure, joy, and sorrow that encompasses one’s life journey”. I can’t attest to how well the lyrics reflect that, but “Prodigal” opens the record joyously with a major key lead guitar lick that feels more suited to power metal than death metal. Have no fear though, the heaviness comes thick and fast. The balance of hard-hitting death metal against softer passages, synth solos, clean sections and more symphonically composed pieces is reminiscent of An Abstract Illusion’s Woe, the two albums sharing many parallels, right down to the seamless transitions between songs. 

Frontman Danny “Jungle” Jacob delivers thick, gruff harshes which can get a little bit monotonous. Though he does change it up with more dynamic harshes, I’d like more of those and less of his standard growls. His cleans, however, are gorgeous, at times the whole band veers into VOLA territory—the first clean section on “Shiver” would fit seamlessly on Inmazes. Clean sections in prog death are all too often exclusively Opeth-influenced, and while there’s of course some Opeth influence here—particularly in the acoustic guitar passages—they weren’t the first referent to cross my mind. Indeed, their clean niche is wholly their own.

Mixed and mastered by the great Jamie King, Passion of Depression sounds exactly as good as you’d expect. The bass is clear as a bell, which I’ve come to see as the high watermark of good mixing, and all the better for it because Jose Figueroa has a tone with physical power and uses it to create some memorable licks, culminating in the filthy bass bends on “Ire” and the thrumming, melodic solo on closing epic “Nurture”. 

Meanwhile, guest guitar solos appear across Passion of Depression, provided by a range of iconic death shredders, from ex-Cynic members Jason Gobel, Santiago Dobles, and Max Phelps, as well as Ole Børud (Extol) and Ethan McKenna (Black Crown Initiate). Naturally, all those contributions are sublime, but this isn’t a case of waiting for these Big-Names™ to come along and improve the current track. In fact, on first listen I barely noticed the guitar solos because you know what? Lamentations manage to outshine their brilliant guests. 

There are so many awesome passages across the record—the extended symphonic opening to “Sombre”, the VOLA-esque clean section and wild second solo in “Shiver”, the aforementioned orgasmic bass moments. Over the course of 55 minutes, Lamentations don’t let up. They deliver minute after minute of intricately planned sonic brilliance. A couple of songs outstay their welcome—the closing riffs on both “Sombre” and “Nurture” go on a little too long, going for that lumbering juggernaut sound but overdoing it just a tad. But this is a critique borne of me trying hard to find fault because, honestly, there’s very little to criticise here.

Andy didn’t have a tech-death suggestion for me, and thank God for that. If he’d had one, I might have missed one of the best progressive death albums of the year. Refreshing, innovative, and engaging; Lamentations have crafted an excellent record, one that reveres the genre’s heavy-hitters but also pushes their sound forward. Passion of Depression is a fantastic sophomore, and proof that these guys could deliver the next prog death masterpiece. They’ve certainly come close this time. 

Recommended tracks: Prodigal, Shiver, Sombre
You may also like: An Abstract Illusion, Monotheist, Extol
Final verdict: 8/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | YouTube | Facebook | Instagram | Metal-Archives page

Label: Willowtip Records – Bandcamp | Website | Facebook

Lamentations is:
– Danny “Jungle” Jacob (vocals)
– Michael “Prophet” Moore (guitars)
– Jose Figueroa (bass)
– Chris Stropoli (drums)