Frailty - Melpomene

Wow! Its a great album!

A huge huge huge huge improvement over their self titled e.p.

This is some good and solid melodic death doom and the main strength of the album is its variety. The pace is for the most part mid-tempo but there are sections of really slow and gloomy doom as well, particularly within the two 14+ minute songs "Desolate Moors" and "The Doomed Halls of Damnation". In addition, the vocals follow the same pattern in terms of variation with grunts, shrieks and cleans, all playing their part nicely. I also like the fact that the guitars are not forgotten and get some time in the spotlight every now and again.

The core sound of Melpomene ain't groundbreaking in any way, with a standard modern death doom feel to it, but I do think that it manages to stand out due to the sheer diversity it offers. With a total playtime over 75 minutes however, the album ain't one for those with a short attention span. To be honest I would not have minded if it had been trimmed down a bit here and there and especially the last song feels like a never-ending outro.

I like most instrumental intro best doom what this band write, then again somehow its to long, to complex, band did write complex songs as, they gets kuddos but somehow album is to long and often hard to listen. It has not old school mid 90's vibes there.

One of my favorite doom/death metal releases ever, right up there with MDB, STS, and others. All their other releases are great too.