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Album Reviews : Advent Sorrow – Before The Dimming Light

By on May 6, 2013
3130972693-1Leave the punters wanting more. It’s what Perth six-piece Advent Sorrow have done with their concept EP Before The Dimming Light, in which they challenge the notion a record needs to be long to tell a story. If you don’t believe a 25 minute symphonic metal release is a good idea, go and listen to something like the tedious 80 minutes of the last Whyzdom album, then clear the house of breakable objects, throw Advent Sorrow on, and prepare for the madness.

It’s dirty, fast, dark and disturbing, and descends further and further into the pits of hell as it dances around you. The record follows the creation of a murderer, his deed and his execution. Both the opening and closing tracks, “Before the Dimming Light” and “Withered by Her Curse”, start with similar piano melodies before they launch into the explosions of filthy black/death metal, but it’s the change in character of those introductions that mirrors the journey of the troubled mind of the protagonist. And what a magnificent journey it is, with murder, madness, and ultimately a rope around its evil neck.

The symphonic and hardcore elements take turns in driving the story and mood, with “A Porcelain Mistress” a great example as the power of the metal defines the brutality of the murder while the swirling and disturbing symphonic melodies define the killer’s state of mind. This is brilliant song-writing.

References to the likes of Cradle of Filth, Dissection and Dimmu Borgir will be made and those direct comparisons would be wrong, because they ignore the rawness, the palpable dirt and grime of Advent Sorrow. That whole contrast of hardcore and symphonic elements is noticeably different because there’s an overall unrefined quality in sound, production and the performances themselves. This is theatre played in the dark, filthy back-streets, not in a concert hall and I really hope they retain that uniqueness and don’t follow in the over-produced footsteps of those other bands.

Band: Advent Sorrow
Album: Before The Dimming Light
Year: 2012
Genre: Symphonic Black/Death Metal
Label: Independent
Origin: Perth, Australia
http://adventsorrow.bandcamp.com/album/before-the-dimming-light-ep

Track list:
1. Before The Dimming Light
2. The Wraith In Silence
3. A Porcelain Mistress
4. Insidious Memories
5. Withered by Her Curse

About

Mitch Booth is the owner, designer and grand overlord of Metal Obsession. In the few seconds of spare time he has outside of this site, he also hosts a metal radio show over on PBS 106.7fm in Melbourne (Australia) and organises shows under the name Untitled Touring. You should follow him on Twitter.