Band:	Longing For Dawn
Album:	Between Elation And Despair
Style:	Death doom metal, Funeral doom metal
Release date:	April 03, 2009
A review by:	Jeff

01. Our Symbolic Burial
02. A Sunrise At Your Feet
03. Reflective
04. The Piscean Dawn

No need to present one more time Longing For Dawn, especially if you like Doom Metal. The really good band from Canada is back this year with their 3rd album, "Between Elation And Despair", a pure concentration of melancholic Funeral Doom Death. I've been into this band since its first release released in 2005 but the more they release album, the better they are. "Between Elation And Despair" is without any doubt their best release and the confirmation that we're just in front of a great band.

Slow riffs, melancholy, growls, dark melodies, slow tempos, great music? that's not so hard to describe the last album of the Canadian Doom act Longing For Dawn. Strangely, this album is extremely easy of access but it doesn't mean that it's commercial or anything. No no, "Between Elation And Despair" is just composed of great songs which simply capture easily the auditor. The four long songs all have the ingredients which make that the recipe work and that all the fans of Doom should fall in love with this music. The melodies are intelligent and attractive, the frozen ambiances are astonishing and the performance of the musicians is just perfect and will finish to convince the few ones who could be a bit suspicious. On the other hand, it remains classic Funeral Doom / Death which means that it's not so easy of access for someone who is not really into this music, but all the fans of the genre, without any exception, should like the album after one try. Longing For Dawn didn't really change its way to write Doom Metal on a side, there are always the big long slow guitars riffs, the really slow tempos and the metallic/electronic insistent sounds which are always there and there in the songs but this is clearly more mature and definitely better now (even if it was already good in the past). Obviously Longing For Dawn is still improving its music and that's just cool?

The guys are still really good and the Death vocals of Stefan Laroche are still extremely powerful as always. I really like too the passages with some few clean vocals or speeches which give one other side (more melancholic) to the music. With a really good production a cover in the vein of the previous album, "Between Elation And Despair" follows the direction of the previous albums released by the band, with the only difference that it's better!

Fan of Doom, please buy this album or be doomed! In the genre this is one of the best releases that we had the chance to listen to lately. Longing For Dawn confirms all my hopes, this band must be considerate as one of the best active Doom / Death Metal combos. If you still don't know them, shame on you, if you know the band already and still don't have their last release, you know what you have to do now, this is, for me at least, their best release. "Between Elation And Despair" is a must no doubt!