August has provided many a metallic treat, and as you’ll see from the below selection, there’s been a decent amount of quality variety on offer this month too. So let’s get stuck in, as metal won’t listen to itself. Continue reading “Monthly Overview – the Best of August 2019”
Tag: The Fifth Alliance
The Fifth Alliance – The Depth of the Darkness (Review)
This is the third album from The Fifth Alliance, a doom/post-metal/sludge band from the Netherlands.
2015’s Death Poems impressed, but the band’s new album seems set to do even more than this. Continue reading “The Fifth Alliance – The Depth of the Darkness (Review)”
The Fifth Alliance – Death Poems (Review)
This is the second album from The Fifth Alliance, who are a Post-Metal/Sludge band from the Netherlands.
Dark, gloomy Post-Metal meets harsh Sludge. Sounds good? It sure does. This is one for fans of bands like Obscure Sphinx, Light Bearer and Year of No Light. Death Poems lives up to these lofty comparisons.
These tracks are exploratory and Doom-filled, featuring the kind of negatively-charged, highly emotive atmospheres that a lot of bands would kill for. The Post-Metal build/release mechanic is used well here, but this is tempered by a more melancholic influence that keeps the tracks evened out, regardless of whether this is done via subtle, reflective sections or heavier ones that sound as if tidal waves are crashing down.
The singer’s screams are of the throat-shredding variety, full of unrequited feelings and anger. Her cleans are rare, but when they appear they’re full of loss and woe, all done in an ethereal-yet-substantial way; plaintive and loaded with real emotion.
This is music that manages to combine the soft caress of despair with the hammer of aggressive catharsis. It’s definitely a recommended listen and one for all fans of interesting, Doom-laden music.
Wonderbox Metal 