Artist: Sons Of Seasons
Title: Gods of Vermin
Type: Album
Label: Napalm Records
This piece of Dark Symphonic Metal is the first full release of the German band Sons of Seasons. “Gods of Vermin” opens up in a classical, melancholy way. The piano gives it a Gothic feel. It’s good when an intro gives an idea of what’s to come and the title track which follows does this. The piano taps out its dark message, it’s slow paced and the guitar has authority while the vocalist alternates between soft and harsh. The lyrics express doubt and uncertainty. It’s all very Progressive in a mainland European sort of way. The orchestra sets the mood. By the third track “A Blind Man’s Resolution”, I was starting to wonder if there was a story as this has a Rock Opera / Musical feel about the way it is progressing. The choir pipes up in the background as if to accentuate a point. There’s action and urgency but there was one problem for me. I just wasn’t getting it. Two minutes in, there’s a wonderful dark passage which had me expecting a Manfred Mann type keyboard solo, but it didn’t happen.
The best way I can describe this album is “moody”. The guitars and drums have a sense of urgency about them, occasionally there’s a jazzy feel and it can be discordant. Dreamy choruses accompany dark growls and anguished vocals, and then an angelic female voice (Simone Simons of Epica) chips in. This has various effects. On “Wintersmith” it reaches the depths of sounding like Peters and Lee singing by a log fire under the Christmas tree. Some may find this beautiful. I didn’t. The Gothic rhythm of ”Fall of Byzanz” was more pleasing, and the dreamy reflectiveness of “The Piper” had tones of Opeth’s “Damnation”, but there’s just no drama about it. The singer wails “Beyond the gates of mayhem lies eternity” with the choir backing him up but he’s losing my sympathy vote, if he ever had it. The songs are not unpleasant but it’s all trite and desultory. The technical guitar playing just goes to waste. There’s some good, chunky guitar work on “Sanatorium Song” but in common with the rest of it, the emotion within the track serve to make it soporific. Unsurprisingly this unexceptional album ends with no climax. It just seems to run out of time.
There’s a lot happening on “Gods of Vermin”, and there must be some intention surely, but it did not capture my continued attention. I’ve listened to it over and over again to try and get something out of it that I’ve been missing. The conclusion I have come to is that is that in its attempt to raise a dark spectre, it merely succeeds in generating an atmosphere of torpor and gloom. This does not make for good listening.
http://www.sonsofseasons.com
http://www.napalmrecords.com
Andrew Doherty
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