Descend Into Despair
Opium
Funere
Descent Into Despair hailing from Romania, the band was formed in 2010, The newest album Opium was released on May 31, 2020 by the Armenian label Funere.
Ensh[r]ine has wonderfully mysterious beginning – female speaking vocals and then, layered singing vocals in combination with long lasting, almost ethereal sounding keyboards sound very promising for the album. Those first minutes of music feature no guitars or drums but when it happens, you can still follow those simple and subtle keyboard touch in the musical background, and then slow and powerful guitars kick in, and sound so crushingly with its low guitar tuning...
...Ensh[r]ine is this more classic funeral doom metal track. Atmosphere of music is somber and so tombed in its cemetery pace that I feel it would be inappropriate to break up from this, because the band has a natural gift to take you there, with the flow of the music, to experience it as it was the first time experiencing doom metal music Guitar chord in the songs can take longer since one chord ends and another one starts to build up, but it slightly changes when music pace changes too. In the middle of the track, the band added some lead guitar layers which let the music sound a bit more post doom metal. When drummer plays more actively, you can actually hear there, how good and explicitly this album really sounds.
I love this swarming guitar groove, somewhere in the middle of song Antumbra which has some gloomy black metal feel to it. This is another very heavy song of the band paced from slow to middle range, with more guitar-drums dynamics. I like work of keyboards in this band, you can feel the presence of this instrument almost constantly, but at the same time, this element just helps build the soundscapes, ambience and character of this album, more from a distant perspective. From the main perspective, this is surely very metal album! The vocal expression changes a bit in this track, from growls to more vicious sometimes (best what comes to my mind as comparison is Nergal of Behemoth). If I say that it is diverse doom metal album and you may question this possibility, I tell you - it is super diverse sounding album without any doubt!
A great example is the next song entitled Dis[re]member, a very doomy track. Music wise, first minutes of the song are more psychedelic rock/metal - clean vocals appear in music. Next, the band plays again, their slow-burn doom metal, but this time, the vocalist sounds more torn inside, so his voice is little more emotional. Next, well, if you speak Romanian, I think those “Romanian” moments in music now will be more interesting to you than it is to me...but as a reward of my patience, the band serves some very dynamic and heavy doom metal tunes till the end of the album.
A sound production of drums on Opium is excellent, every drum beat sound so distinct, every kick drum - either slow or fast, sound very clean and just brilliant, I like when drums are tuned this way, for me, it is what the one could call perfection. Deep and raw vocals growls are just symbiotic for the music of the band but album also features many other musicians too - in different parts of songs you will hear small dose of various vocal approaches - ...multi layered humming and dark operatic vocals...I tell you what, this album never fails when comes to vocals, overall experience of is impact-full for what this band does.
Descend Into Despair takes you on a long journey, in style of funeral doom metal. Even if there are only three tracks on this album, you need to reserve almost an hour to get through this perfectly balanced music of the band - it will be worth it. I feel like I could listen to this record forever if it was possible - there is a beauty of sound and tension of grave sadness and despair in the music of the band that made a great record.
Album was recorded in Romania but mastered in the UK, and I can`t imagine that Opium could sounds any better than it is now.
Ensh[r]ine has wonderfully mysterious beginning – female speaking vocals and then, layered singing vocals in combination with long lasting, almost ethereal sounding keyboards sound very promising for the album. Those first minutes of music feature no guitars or drums but when it happens, you can still follow those simple and subtle keyboard touch in the musical background, and then slow and powerful guitars kick in, and sound so crushingly with its low guitar tuning...
...Ensh[r]ine is this more classic funeral doom metal track. Atmosphere of music is somber and so tombed in its cemetery pace that I feel it would be inappropriate to break up from this, because the band has a natural gift to take you there, with the flow of the music, to experience it as it was the first time experiencing doom metal music Guitar chord in the songs can take longer since one chord ends and another one starts to build up, but it slightly changes when music pace changes too. In the middle of the track, the band added some lead guitar layers which let the music sound a bit more post doom metal. When drummer plays more actively, you can actually hear there, how good and explicitly this album really sounds.
I love this swarming guitar groove, somewhere in the middle of song Antumbra which has some gloomy black metal feel to it. This is another very heavy song of the band paced from slow to middle range, with more guitar-drums dynamics. I like work of keyboards in this band, you can feel the presence of this instrument almost constantly, but at the same time, this element just helps build the soundscapes, ambience and character of this album, more from a distant perspective. From the main perspective, this is surely very metal album! The vocal expression changes a bit in this track, from growls to more vicious sometimes (best what comes to my mind as comparison is Nergal of Behemoth). If I say that it is diverse doom metal album and you may question this possibility, I tell you - it is super diverse sounding album without any doubt!
A great example is the next song entitled Dis[re]member, a very doomy track. Music wise, first minutes of the song are more psychedelic rock/metal - clean vocals appear in music. Next, the band plays again, their slow-burn doom metal, but this time, the vocalist sounds more torn inside, so his voice is little more emotional. Next, well, if you speak Romanian, I think those “Romanian” moments in music now will be more interesting to you than it is to me...but as a reward of my patience, the band serves some very dynamic and heavy doom metal tunes till the end of the album.
A sound production of drums on Opium is excellent, every drum beat sound so distinct, every kick drum - either slow or fast, sound very clean and just brilliant, I like when drums are tuned this way, for me, it is what the one could call perfection. Deep and raw vocals growls are just symbiotic for the music of the band but album also features many other musicians too - in different parts of songs you will hear small dose of various vocal approaches - ...multi layered humming and dark operatic vocals...I tell you what, this album never fails when comes to vocals, overall experience of is impact-full for what this band does.
Descend Into Despair takes you on a long journey, in style of funeral doom metal. Even if there are only three tracks on this album, you need to reserve almost an hour to get through this perfectly balanced music of the band - it will be worth it. I feel like I could listen to this record forever if it was possible - there is a beauty of sound and tension of grave sadness and despair in the music of the band that made a great record.
Album was recorded in Romania but mastered in the UK, and I can`t imagine that Opium could sounds any better than it is now.
Tracklist:
1 Ensh[r]ine
2 Antumbra
3 Dis[re]member
1 Ensh[r]ine
2 Antumbra
3 Dis[re]member
Review by Slawek Migacz
Added: 26.09.2020
Added: 26.09.2020