Draconian - Where Lovers Mourn

Genre: Doom Metal
Name: Draconian
Album: Where Lovers Mourn, 2003
It is said that Draco himself, when asked why he had fixed the punishment of death for most offences, answered that he considered these lesser crimes to deserve it, and he had no greater punishment for more important ones - Plutarch, The Life Of Solon

Of late, I have been trawling the internet looking for a good doom metal band whom I have not yet heard; it had occured to me that, whilst My Dying Bride, Swallow The Sun and Triptykon were all very good, even when I had every last song, it still wasn't enough. So, I have been for a stroll through the tubes, and come across a variety of bands - some atrociously bad, some hilariously awful, and some so unoriginal as to be the greatest acts of plagiarism since Nosferatu, but none that I genuiniely enjoyed for the music. None, that was, until Draconian came up on my radar.

They passed the initial checks - I hadn't heard of them before, and they didn't seem the usual satanist, bland, raging rubbish that passes for metal these days. I gave them a listen, and I was not disappointed - far from the expected atrocities, I was treated to a rather excellent and exceptionally enjoyable album - Where Lovers Mourn.

Draconian have several things that make it a cut above the rest - the exceptional vocals, the wide use of instruments and the ability to be cheesy without being cheesy. This is made all the more impressive by the fact that it is the band's first full-length album.

The primary reason for the vocals being so impressive - and of course bear in mind that vocals are more important in Doom Metal than many other forms of music (choirs, of course, excluded) - is because they come in so many varieties. For starters, they have two members of the band who are purely vocals - not singing and guitar, not singing and keys, not singing and violin - just purely their because of their voices. There are three different vocal styles in fewer than the first three minutes of the album - by 2:16 of The Cry Of Silence you have had clean vocals, female singing and then death growls. In addition, none of these are weak, or tacked on - each plays its own part, and sounds damned good whilst doing so. The singing harmonies on A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal (note the Wordsworth reference - Romantic era poetry and doom metal go hand in hand, it seems) are exquisite, and there is more excellent vocal work on The Solitude.

Aside from vocals, the instrumentation is very good as well - the two guitars work well together, and the bass is certainly interesting. But besides this they have a variety of other instruments employed to create a multitude of textures. For example, the piano on the end of track one is mournful indeed (my one problem is that it seems tacked on the end - the song fades away, then the piano fades in; the one thing which I dislike about this album is that they didn't integrate that piano more); the piano then appears quietly in the background in The Solitude. Besides this, there is an acoustic introduction to Akherousia and rather delightful strings to be found in tracks two and three.
The range of instruments, however, is not confined to riff-based melodies or chord sequences, as doom metal often can be - there are themes and even a solo or two to be found amongst the songs. All in all, it is musically very good.

As for the "cheese factor", all indicators would suggest that it would be there in abundance. The final line of The Cry Of Silence begins with "Oh my God", which has a faint air of a teenage girl complaining about her curfew to her mother, and throughout the lyrics there are spatterings of "thee" and "thou" and "art", and many more "olde worlde" words. In addition, they are no strangers to standard sound effects - their next album, Arcane Rain Fell would begin with the sound of rainfall, with a thunderclap just as the words begin (that said, Dream Theater got away with that). However, despite all this, somehow you don't cringe; somehow, it all actually works together and sounds rather good. It's not self-concious, and it's not overdone. The words and phrases all fit, thread and flow together well, creating a brilliant album which is definately worth a listen.


Summary: Excellent doom metal, in the vein of My Dying Bride; similar, but not derivative

Lyrical Themes: depression, lonliness, misanthropy

Rating: 9/10 - recommended

Track listing:
1.The Cry of Silence
2.Silent Winter
3.A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal
4.The Solitude
5.Reversio ad Secessum
6.The Amaranth
7.Akherousia
8.It Grieves My Heart

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Discography - DELAYED DUE TO TECHNICAL HICCUP, expect it Thursday, or Friday at the very latest.
unfortunately, I am missing one demo (Shades Of A Lost Moon), their compilation (The Burning Halo) and one single (No Greater Sorrow). Links to these would be appreciated, and then this can and will be updated as soon as possible.