Band:	Dolorian
Album:	Dolorian
Style:	Black metal, Doom metal
Release date:	2001
A review by:	KwonVerge

01. Grey Rain
02. Blue Unknown
03. Hidden/Rising
04. Cold/Colourless
05. Nails
06. Numb Lava
07. Ambiguous Ambivalence
08. Seclusion
09. Faces

It was 1999 when Dolorian released their renowned debut album, "When All The Laughter Has Gone", a claustrophobic opus of desolate and oblivious soundscapes. It was quite obvious that the cold and sunless Finland had given birth to another exceptional band in the world of doom.

Two years passed since the release of "When All The Laughter Has Gone" and 2001 arrived, it was then when the second and long-awaited self-titled Dolorian album blossomed in the darkness of a falling night-sky. We all know that an expressive cover artwork is important for an album since it gives the first impressions to the listener of what to expect, most of the times. Shades of grey in obscure shapes adorn the nihilistic cover artwork of "Dolorian" and of course, the music could not be different, harmonizing beautifully with the cover in a withering nihilistic way.

There are two main characteristics of "Dolorian". Firstly, the band wants to sound personal and, secondly, they want to take their sound some steps further and not compose another "When All The Laughter Has Gone". In my humble opinion they have expressed both characteristics in the most appropriate way, remaining personal and at the same time expressing themselves in alternative innovative ways from the ones their debut album introduced.

The guitars sound softer and by saying that I mean that most of the time the acoustic guitar chord passages are more prominent than the distorted ones; this doesn't mean that the menacing Dolorian riffing with the razorblade melodies is not present, of course it is, but not as much as on their previous release. The obscure echo effects that Dolorian always had in their guitar sound are always present and add a unique sense in their compositions, a sense of drowning, losing yourself in an ocean of grey emotions. The guitar echo effects along with the floating keyboard melodies harmonize together in such an unearthly, serene and, at the same time, nightmarish way that leaves the listener speechless, leaving him unable to realize how such a tender and, at the same time, devouring/lethargic/nihilistic atmosphere can exist!

And now we reach the most important part of the album, the vocals. If you were an admirer of Haapapuro's eerie and distressing howls you should definitely forget them, because this way of interpretation doesn't exist in this album! Yet, this doesn't mean that you won't love the different way he chose to give life to the grey lyrics of Dolorian. Haapapuro prefers expressing himself in an utterly cold whispering way, with his whispers echoing like hopeless sighs, like death rattles.

Nihilistic, with an intense desolate atmosphere, doom/black metal is what Dolorian offer with their second self-titled album, a must-have album for all those that seek inspiration, originality, vivid and surrounding atmosphere and cold and fragile emotions.