Draconians best album, i think. i also think paradise lost released their best album. good year for gothic stuff

I absolutely love this album. My favorite from them so far, and yes both Arcane Rain Fell and Seasons Within have been very important to me over the years. I think they outdone themselves this time, I even got interest in learning more about a subject (gnosticism) that I never cared about.

This ratings debate always fascinates me. I remember back in 2008 when I was exploring the world of Metal, metalstorm became my go-to place. Almost everything i know about Metal, I owe it to metalstorm. I would sit for hours checking out ratings of albums and then listening to them accordingly. Found some of my favorite bands and albums thanks to metalstorm reviews and ratings.

But i think it was around 2012 when this voting abuse thing really started getting troublesome. The top 20 list would change almost everyday because people would downvote bands they don't listen to and upvote bands they liked. Slowly, a lot of genuine voters lost interest in voting and since then there's been a downward trend in the number of votes, and overall rating too.

Otherwise, i do think there are quite a few albums of the last 6,7 years that would've had higher ratings if the pre-2012 crowd was rating them. I think this album deserves to be closer to Arcane Rain Fell than it is, rating-wise.

A phenomenal album - love it, can't stop listening to it. Draconian seem to just get better and better!

I've been re-listening and reappraising my favourite albums of 2020 for the past couple of weeks.

This is officially my AOTY.

My love for Draconian is quite new, but I have went trough their discography chronologically and Under A Godless Veil is the most perfect album of theirs IMO. It keeps delivering from beginning to the end. On a side note, I never understood the reverence of Arcane Rain Fell, which is only good until the final track "Death, Come Near Me" which is legendary- but that is not enough to push the album to the top IMO.

Honestly I was not expecting this. Even with everyone saying Draconian was reborn with the album before this, I didn't wanna buy into that and be let down. I don't think I've ever liked one of their albums this much. Reminds me of StS.

Absolitely stunning wotk of doom/gothic metal. This album sends shivers down my spine, what tremendous melancholic atmosphere it depicts, how well the sound is equlibrated, the vocal play is perfect; it portays such wide array of emotions, in different shades of dark.... Phenomenal album, indeed.

Indeed quite a surprise this one. For me, their best since Arcane Rain, that is already fixed.
My first impression after three spins is, considering the album length, cut out three or so songs, and you have a neat album.
For now, I guess I would cut out the last three songs, but probably I need a couple of more spins to finally judge this album.

Edit: A couple of spins later:
All five songs in the first half are excellent, I think.
Now, in the second half quality decreases somewhat. The Sethian stands out there.
From the remaining four tracks I would have cut some out to shorten the album significantly, and I would have taken at least tracks 8 and 10 out.
As it is, the album scores around 7.5 for me and thereby indeed is my favourite of them after Arcane Rain.

With my vote it turned green....
Beautiful album. 1,2,5,7 and 10 are my favourite tracks.

Written by metalbrat on 08.01.2021 at 17:59

With my vote it turned green....

It apparently does that sometimes, although it actually is not green, which you can see if you reload.
This turning to green is thus probably better read as a "thanks for your vote".

Written by Redel on 08.01.2021 at 23:12

Written by metalbrat on 08.01.2021 at 17:59

With my vote it turned green....

It apparently does that sometimes, although it actually is not green, which you can see if you reload.
This turning to green is thus probably better read as a "thanks for your vote".

You are right...haha...when I returned, it was again yellow....
:

One of the most captivating gothic albums I've heard in years. This album got me through some tough times in the latter of last year.

Their best album, and the best album of 2020, in my opinion!

Written by angel. on 19.01.2021 at 14:57

filled all round with the vocals of Heike here and there and everywhere they didn't know how to fill up the songs

I think that was entirely the point. The vocal performance takes centre stage and the space within the instrumentation often lends to the anticipation of a strong vocal melody. It's at those points the record sends shivers down my spine because I know what's coming next.

I almost wish she sang even more but I know the death growls give it the needed shades of dark and light, so it wouldn't work if she performed all the vocals.

Definitely album of the year.

Written by phanto on 29.11.2020 at 04:01

Draconians best album, i think. i also think paradise lost released their best album. good year for gothic stuff

Yeah, both are excellent albums. I never really dove into gothic metal as a genre, but both those albums are starting to lean me into exploring it.

I'd like them to get rid of these generic growls and go full dreamy goth doom metal in the next album.

Not get a huge boner to Draconian lest listened to a couple of albums, but this drastically took me by a surprise. Will be tossing it up in my playlist for a while.

Great album.

"Draconian"
what a magnificent group of gothic doom, each album offers a very pleasant listening pleasure with its captivating atmosphere.
I don't think I have a favorite album they are all just beautiful.
I just deleted 1 or 2 tracks in a few albums which in my opinion were useless, and since the arrival of the vocalist Heike including sovran and this album and for me a nice return to the source with more maturity "maybe not a majestic Arcanum but not far".
although Lisa and a hell of a vocalist, I'm sad about the premature departure of Heike "her voice is so captivating and I think she brought something extra to the group, this little thing that made Draconian bounce back on the last 2 albums" in short I will miss Heike!!
otherwise draconian is for me the Doom/Gothic band par excellence

Yet another solid release, it's very consistent, every song is at least good, abd they've managed to yet again keep that dark and majestic atmosphere building up, whilst each track flows incredibly well. I don't rate her vocals as high as I did on the previous release, but they are still damn effective,
and the guitar solo's are really impressive on this album.

I would like a job with Johan Ericson and Heike Langhans, a bit like eternity of trees

Waaaaait a second.... this was the best album of the year?
Ok, me is listening.

A beautiful album that stays consistent from front to back. Yet again, Draconian shows that they know how to create an atmosphere that you can lose yourself in. Heike's vocals have an ethereal quality to them that I love! My favorite tracks are: Burial Fields and Claw Marks On The Throne.