On disc: Before The Dawn

 
- My Darkness
 
- Claudia Ehrhardt -
 
 


 
- Deadlight
 
- Philip Thelen -
 
 

Deadlight

(Cyclone Empire - 2007)



 
 

 

Cyclone Empire presents us Deadlight, a melodic metalcore album of the Finnish Before The Dawn. I should mention that the album has a great sound and actually the Finnish quartet is presenting themselves on a high level.

The opening track is Wrath and kicks off with a fat mid-tempo riff. Really cool are the two voices their work with - the deep growls and the high notes. And this sound element they use on the whole album. At the untitled song at the end of the disc you also hear a female voice. This parts are more relaxed and partly more epic. The single Deadlock you find on the album, too, and is a real treat. Well done!

Some might ask why I only name so few songs, well... Reason is that several songs are quite similar and even after several spins they are too similar. Don't get me wrong, I don't want to devalue their music, coz they have their own style and I can't come up with any band to compare them with. In a nutshell, a damn good album, but personally I miss a bit variety in the songwriting. I recommend these songs: Wrath, Faithless, Eternal, Deadsong and the nameless one.
 
 










Philip Thelen
(translation: Claudia Ehrhardt)

  
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My Darkness

(Locomotive Music - 2003)



 
 

 

Actually this one meant to be a solo project of guitarist Tuomas Saukkonen, he recorded a demo in 2000 and soon other musicians were interested in joining him and so Before The Dawn was born. A 2nd demo followed and some deals were offered, but it took more time to find a suitable deal and so now the debut My Darkness is released. The five-piece play metal with a gothic touch. Seraphim is good example for their sound. The song is mainly presenting the clean vocals of guitarist Panu Willman, while the first track Unbreakable - counting the intro - is sung by guitarist Tuamoas Saukkonen who adds the dark vocals.

The title track of the Finnish reminds me of their fellow-countrymen Sentenced.

On Take My Pain the band works with breaks, a heavy dark track where the music, the sound reminds me of HIM (but heavier) with vocals which are more death metal kinda like as well as the fast bass drum parts.

The quintet presents dark atmospheric metal with gothic, black and death metal elements, but very powerful. So this CD is interesting for metal fans who are open to cross-boarder sounds. Only traditionalists are definitely not the target group of the band.
 
 










Claudia Ehrhardt


  
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