Album Review: Dawn of Solace - Flames of Perdition
Reviewed by Richard Oliver
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again - no one does doom and gloom as well as the Finnish. Melancholy seems to be embedded into their DNA from the amount of incredible dark and melancholic metal acts that the country has produced. Flames Of Perdition the third album from Dawn Of Solace is testament to my statement being 40 minutes of darkness, misery and beauty.
The band is the solo vehicle for multi-instrumentalist Tuomas Saukkonen who is known as the mastermind of dark melodic death metal bands such as Wolfheart, Before The Dawn and Black Sun Aeon and whilst Dawn Of Solace bears a lot of similarities with those aforementioned bands this project very much sits on the doom and gothic metal spectrum. He is joined by vocalist Mikko Heikkilä (of Kaunis Kuolematon) who joined as the bands vocalist on previous album Waves and his beautiful clean vocals help elevate these songs giving them a slight air of hope and positivity amongst all the themes of darkness.
All the music is written and instruments performed by Tuomas Saukkonen and this album picks up pretty much exactly where we left off on the previous album being eight songs of doom-laden gothic-tinged melodic metal. Album opener White Noise sets the scene with its big hooks and forlorn melodies. The title track has some gorgeous piano led melodies and acoustic moments though the album highlight has to be Black Shores with its driving rhythm and irresistible dark hooks. Certain editions of the album have two bonus songs in the form of live acoustic versions of Lead Wings and Dead Air off the previous album and whilst these versions are enjoyable they do lack the punch and power of the originals.
The one criticism that could be laid at the feet of Flames Of Perdition is that it feels very much like a continuation of previous album Waves with very little to differentiate between the two records and little to no progression from the band. Personally I love the straightforward and simplistic yet affecting gothic doom metal presented on these albums and Waves Of Perdition is another in a long line of awesome Finnish melancholic metal. With January being the most dismal month of the year, Dawn Of Solace have provided the perfect soundtrack.
