Artist: December Flower
Title: When All Life Ends
Type: Album
Label: Cyclone Empire
Old School Melodic Blackened Death Metal is what we’re told to expect from these Germans, and this is what we get. It’s quickly into fast and furious melody. Indeed by the third track “Your Darkest Path”, it’s breathtaking. This track is then followed by the pièce de résistance of this livewire album, in my opinion at least. “As Darkness Reigns” is an apt track title. I thought I could hear a resemblance to Dark Tranquillity in vocals and melody, but this comes from a stronger Death Metal tradition. The sound is immense. All the spaces are filled in. Blastbeating drums, deep guitar patterns are interwoven to tell us we’re on a exciting journey. Throughout the song structures are strong. Here it slows down for the vocalist to input some thought-provoking pathos, supported by potent guitar work. I was half expecting “What can you tell me of the inside” to be uttered but Stanne-like as they are, the vocals are darker and ghostlier in accordance with the heavy rhythm. The vocalist continues to roar his way through the bludgeoning “Aeon”, backed by an irresistible melodic Metal rhythm. As if in live performance mode, the instrumentalists take over to lead us through a headbanging section. “Dying Sun” marks half-time with a pleasant instrumental guitar interlude before we return to the matter of bludgeoning melody. “Life Ends” starts in epic fashion, but we’re soon flowing and twirling again. There’s a blackness about the vocal delivery. The circling guitar rhythm is again magnetic. The sound quality is excellent. The track is constantly deep and dark. After a break, lush guitar work takes us away again. The parameters are precise and everything stays within the framework of the songs, so there are no dramatic departures here to mess with your brain. It’s all thunderously heavy and the Death vocals are now haunting. The pace seems to pick up with each track and by the eighth track “Despise Your Life”, the drumming is breakneck. Swirling melodies envelop the continuing onslaught. For the first time, the album threatens to get blown away with heaviness. One really good feature of this album is that the end of each track provides a natural lead into the next one, which really helps to keep the momentum and energy level up. We get brief respite in the middle of “Lost in Twilight” as the vocalist whispers and we pass through a quieter but no less turbulent stage. The ante is soon upped and we’re once again off to the blackened races. This takes us smoothly into the blackened fury of “And Blood Has to be Shed”. The pattern is familiar now. The album is played out with an upbeat and epic guitar section, thus maintaining the heightened atmosphere to the last.
On the strength of this album, I’d be very keen to see December Flower play live. The movement and relentless heaviness are not commensurate with a quiet evening in. Entertaining and energetic as it is, I wonder if it would have been tiresome if it had gone on for longer than its duration of about 40 minutes, but with this album timing is a strength to ensure that doesn’t happen. The control is excellent, as the band know how to work a passage to maximum effect and switch at the right time to maintain interest and flow. I found myself being swept along by “When All Life Ends”. It is interesting technically and easy to get into. The band know where they want to go, and go there. In my book, that’s a good recipe to follow.
www.myspace.com/thedecemberflower
Andrew Doherty
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