Band:	Draconian
Album:	Arcane Rain Fell
Style:	Gothic doom metal
Release date:	January 24, 2005
A review by:	Jeff

01. A Scenery Of Loss
02. Daylight Misery
03. The Apostasy Canticle
04. Expostulation
05. Heaven Laid In Tears (Angel's Lament)
06. The Abhorrent Rays
07. The Everlasting Scar
08. Death, Come Near Me

I remember, 10 years before, a band from Norway was the king, the emperor of the Gothic Doom Metal music with female vocals. Its was of course the great Theatre Of Tragedy, but we all know what happened no need to add anything else about it? Luckily, some bands like Draconian tried to follow this spirit? and it was good? or not? "Where Lovers Mourn", the first album of Draconian was a good one but not really special not really new, a bit too much "easy" in my opinion with too many female vocals, and it certainly was too much "happy" for a Gothic Metal band. But now? honestly I don't know what happened with them, this is a real metamorphosis? In general we always see the opposite, the bands which did something good, fall into facility with success? That's not the case of Draconian, god bless them?

For the ones who was expecting something in the spirit of the first album of the band, you must know, and I'm sorry to give you this news, that you'll be disappointed. No more female vocals, no more fast tempo, we are in the pure Doom area now. Of course Lisa Johansson is always a member of the band, of course is voice is always nice and of course she sings on this album but in comparison of Anders Jacobsson we don't hear her a lot, she is only like a backing-vocals singer on the majority of the songs excepted on "Heaven Laid In Tears". For all the other tracks of the album, the lead singer is Anders with of course his Death Metal voice and the result is a nice Gothic Death/Doom Metal.
This album is also different musically; the music is slow, monotonous. There are some exceptions, some passages are a bit faster but well in general all that really sounds Doom. The guitars riffs are heavy and loud, very slow, the double pedal drums very present, the bass is also an important instrument, and the keyboards however are not very active [they do only some backing-sounds or some few piano melodies].
The songs aren't linear, from the beginning to the end, you could hear that the band did a nice work of composition for the music but also for the lyrics. Some songs are more melodic than some others which are bit more agressive, but a masterpiece like the 15 mins long song "Arcane Rain Fell - Death, Come Near Me" only confirm that we are in front of some very good compositors.
This album is a great album, dark and full of sadness but beautiful like an autumn dusk, this is only poesy, something magic. You could see, when you will listen to it, that the band did something really surprising, and the work on the musical composition just talks. "Arcane Rain Fell" is this kind of album which will give you shivers, and if like me you are a fan of Doom Metal or real Gothic music, no doubt that you'll be dazzle of this new release.
With a great and perfect production, a great artwork in the pure tradition of the Gothic Doom Metal, I can't find any problems to this CD. This is a real perfection?

That's good to see that a band is able to do this kind of change, that a band is able to take a radical turn in its musical orientation. How could we blame them to do that, how could we blame them to do the opposite of the majority of the other Metal bands which are all falling in the pit of the banality? No, we must only congratulate this Swedish combo, they did the good choice and will only win the respect of the ones who like this music, and can't find a lot of albums of such quality. I have the feeling that I'm doing a come back in the past, but in fact, a new band is just born, and with this great "Arcane Rain Fell" we have the proof, that the king of Gothic Doom Metal reigns now in Sweden. A must?