Artist: Helevorn
Title: Forthcoming Displeasures
Type: Album
Label: Solitude Productions

Gothic doom. As a genre, I honestly can’t get enough of it and could quite happily listen to it all day, but there does come a time when you must admit to yourself that a lot of it really does sound alike. I mean, you have your Anathema’s and Swallow The Sun’s up there at the top, then beneath it there are a heap of imitators that I’ll certainly enjoy listening to, perhaps make an effort to see live if the chance should arise, but probably won’t spend an awful lot of time off that dusty old shelf. It’s a lot easier to tell when a gothic doom album is especially bad; done right it should have atmosphere and emotion above all else and when that’s missing you might as well not bother. Forthcoming Displeasures certainly has these elements in spades; it’s the sort of album you can instantly put on the stereo and it feels as comforting as a nice pair of fluffy, slightly worn-in slippers which is, in a way, rather a good thing. Sometimes you just want what is familiar and comfortable…On the other hand it can be predicted note-for-note by anyone with even a casual liking for the sub-genre, and if I had to tell you why to buy this album as opposed to any of the other ten or so gothic-doom albums I’ve heard this year I’m not sure that I could.

That’s not to say it’s not worth your attention; it’s actually a highly listenable album. ‘Descent’ has a grand, epic flow spanning over seven minutes with richly interwoven layers of soothing guitar melodies and soaring keyboards. There is very much that glimmer of hope shining through a la Swallow The Sun, which I like. Things get a bit more up-tempo with ‘Two Voices Surrounding’ which plods along with a Gothic sounding drum beat and the dejected clean vocal lines on this one especially have me drawing a comparison to Nick Holmes. There is a steady mix of clean vocals and deathly growls; on ‘Yellow’ (not a Coldplay cover, in case you’re wondering) the vocals on the chorus are really fragile and add an air of Gothic romance to proceedings.

There’s a certain air of majesty on ‘To Bleed Not To Suffer’ which has a nice flow to it and again the guitars are especially soothing in their tone. The violin is a nice touch as well, adding a mournful layer over the main rhythm section. ‘Hopeless Truth’ is an interesting one with a seemingly unconventional time signature which eventually finds its way swinging into motion, before crashing to a catastrophic halt and struggling back to where it began. There’s even an Egyptian lick that discreetly maunders into the mix. To return to the beginning, Forthcoming Pleasures doesn’t really offer anything new to the table, but it’s a nice, slick sounding slice of melancholy that fans of Gothic doom are bound to enjoy.

http://www.myspace.com/helevorn

Luci Herbert

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