Metal Music forum - reviews, interviews, downloads

Metal Music fans and visitors forum .

You are not logged in.

gothic
Administrator
Registered: 2016-09-05
Posts: 41
Windows 7Firefox 47.0

Enclave Of Dreams : Дорога в неизбежность - review

An energetically melodic Gothic Doom debut from 2013 by Анклав Снов aka Enclave Of Dreams.

0_2570a8_ee7c1bd5_orig.jpg

Opening with the sounds of running water and desperate breathing, 'Дорога в неизбежность' (Russian: 'Doroga V Neizbezhnost', meaning 'road to the inevitable') quickly exposes itself as a melodic piece of Gothic Doom once the first song hits, one that is mixed well and accompanied by catchy vocals. The cover art is a little misleading, as the Анклав Снов (the band also use the translation Enclave Of Dreams) logo looks like it belongs more so in the world of Slam and Death Metal, but the imagery itself is quite accurate, and it evokes the same feelings as the music does. The album overall is an energetic, but Doom filled lamentation that only falls short because of a few poor melodies and uninspired songs.

Hidden text

As already mentioned, the mix, while not exceptional, is fairly clear. The first song's intro exhibits some satisfying bass work, and the rest of the band soon follows behind. Palm muted riffs are a key feature in the writing, and the rhythm section as a whole sounds crisp and well put together, meeting the 'chuggy' parts in an appropriate way. The riffs themselves can be a bit on the bland side at times, though none of them are bad; their simplicity is forgivable because there is a lot else is going on in the arrangements. The only detrimental attribute of the instruments is the compositions of some of the lead guitar and violin parts, which play a few bad and repetitive melodies throughout the course of the album. But this isn't always the case. For example, on the sixth song, the orchestral arrangements are quite complimentary to the structure of the piece, and the song might suffer were it not for their presence. The same can be said for the lead guitar work on the penultimate track.

The vocals are my favorite aspect of the album. Swinging back and forth between cleans and screams, as is common with Gothic bands, the vocal parts are always catchy. The screams are usually layered, and the different tones the male vocalist uses mesh together in a way that makes the arrangement sound more full. The cleans could stand to show a bit more range, as some of them seem to be more rhythm-focused than melody-focused, an odd attribute for sung vocals, but one that isn't necessarily bad as they are executed competently. Unfortunately, some of the vocal melodies across the album sound almost identical to the others, and because the songs don't show too much variety, this can be a damning thing depending on your taste.

Though far from original or exceptional, 'Дорога в неизбежность' doesn't have any bad moments, just a few dry ones. The songs could stand to differentiate themselves from each other more, but each one of them is catchy, and each one on its own could be called a solid piece of music. Another interesting thing about the album is that it seems to get better as it progresses; more variety comes out in the later tracks, in both the instruments and the vocals. Maybe if Enclave Of Dreams had attempted an EP rather than a full length, focusing more so on the themes of the album's second half, the album would have come across better. Despite these shortcomings, 'Дорога в неизбежность' still exhibits some memorable moments, you just have to wait for them.

Offline

Registered users online in this topic: 0, guests: 1
[Bot] CCBot
Created by Metal Music Blog team 2009-2016 Яндекс.Метрика