Slow Fall contemplates its future.
With their new album Blood Eclipse, the band led by Markus Taipale (vocals), Juho Viinikanoja (guitar, Darklaid, Casket Soil), Heikki Kakko (guitar, Dream of Unreality), Markku Kerosalo (bass, Dream of Unreality), Janne Lukki (drums, Tomb of Finland, Elvenscroll) and Lasse Launimaa (keyboards, Dream of Unreality, Henget, Thyrane) sign their third release with Out Of Line Music.
The album kicks off with a melancholy touch with Storm Never Rests and its acoustic introduction which turns into a saturated flow while retaining the airy approach before placing more aggressive vocal parts. The mix remains cold and heady when the clean chorus kicks in, but the keyboards are also more present before the rhythm leads into the jerky God Of Oblivion, where the contrast is even more developed, allowing the musicians to exploit all their influences. There’s a catchy groove, but also more soaring touches and furious vocal parts, before Mercury Moon gives us a moment’s respite with its intoxicating first notes, quickly complemented by an ethereal rhythm. The track is quite mysterious, and offers pride of place to demonstrative clean vocals to complement the roars, only bringing back the darkness on On This Hill I Will Die with its ominous touches that the catchy riffs naturally develop. Even so, the composition remains fairly short, and Blood Eclipse takes its place first with majestic sweetness, then with visceral rage in both the instrumental and the screams, but the harmonics come to develop a wrought, melodic touch. The sound eventually fades out on its own, before transforming into a slow, soothing ballad on Virta, where vocalist, keyboardist and violin join forces as a trio to lull us to sleep, only returning to saturation on Colossus, creating a disquieting dissonance before releasing the reins. The choruses are slightly softer, yet energetic in their own way, and then the band adopts a sound that I’d describe as “typically Finnish” on Supernova, which even takes advantage of the sometimes lighter Old School influences to tint their liveliness. The track’s energy will undoubtedly be extremely infectious live right up to the last moment, while Vendetta develops this mystical aspect while maintaining a solid, driving rhythm. The album closes with Vale Omnes (Kaikki Kuolee), which begins in a rather hazy atmosphere, but eventually turns into a dull heaviness before again integrating the hint of mystery by weaving its Prog roots through to a saving break, from which calm is reborn, then intensity to end on a climax.
While Blood Eclipse may be relatively more aggressive than its predecessor, Slow Fall is absolutely not denying its ethereal atmospheres and coldness! The band experiments while weaving its own universe, and that’s precisely what we like.
90/100