Band:	Fall Of Empyrean
Album:	A Life Spent Dying
Style:	Death doom metal
Release date:	May 2010

01. Bereft
02. Breathe Deep The Cinders
03. Vast But Desolate
04. Anhedonia
05. The Air Is Still
06. A Long Silence
07. Lifeless In My Arms
08. Veins Split Wide
09. Catharsis

I remember listening and reviewing the band's previous effort, A Darkness Remembered, quite some time ago, a solid doom/death release, well, the years passed and Fall Of Empyrean are back with A Life Spent Dying. The title and the cover artwork of the album pace wonderfully together and prepare the listener of what is to follow. Judging by the cover which presents something like a living dead stroke by pins on the back, how much does it differ from reality? How many actually live nowadays? But that's just another story; or the story itself(?).

This time the band presents a more powerful face, everything is heavier, bleak still, but it evokes more anger. The outbursts are quite many and the tempo is usually going upwards, without forgetting though the more mid-paced or slow atmospheric moments. Introvert sorrow runs through the mourning guitars and acoustic passages, enriched by the bitter recites of Richard Medina, so soft and heart-felt that the only way out is to end in desperate and filled with anger dynamic grunts. Pain turns to anger and vice versa, an endless circle somewhere inbetween black and grey. Raw and heavy riffing couldn't be missing, after all, that's the only way to pave the path for Medina's explosions, with the rhythm section creating walls of sound, but still they find their master upon his interpretation.

The album opens with "Bereft", a beautiful intro and then the album crashes your head on the barren soil on the very first chance, the following "Breathe Deep The Cinders". Yet, it always ends in storm, like the raging death metal aura of "Catharsis" which completes the album in the most appropriate way, being a cleansing for both the band and the audience, as the title says, and I wouldn't think of a different way for the band to escalate A Life Spent Dying. Fall Of Empyrean is not only about almost raw doom/death metal with glimpses of melody and/or esoteric moments as presented above, amidst the tracks you will find beautiful acoustic instrumentals based on chords and keyboards sometimes (their use is distinctive, not abusive over their sound), showing the fragile side of the band. It's something like the calm inbetween storms, awaiting for the next one.

So as to sense its sound concept, of course you will have to cherish A Life Spent Dying as a whole, after all, it doesn't tire and despite being not the most original doom/death metal album around, it will appeal to adorers of the scene that like it kind of raw, yet still not losing in terms of emotion.

“The stars have left the sky.”