Artist: Solitude Aeturnus
Title: In Times Of Solitude
Genre: Doom/Power Metal
Release Date: 15th July 1011
Label: Massacre Records
Album Review
SOLITUDE AETURNUS was founded in 1987 and this release ‘In Times Of Solitude’ is tied to this era of their earliest career. What is collected here? You’ll find some rare songs, demo versions and songs taken out of rehearsal sessions and one live performance. Their sound seems to share some similarities with CANDLEMASS; their current singer Rob Lowe replaced the former CANDLEMASS singer Messiah Marcolin, no surprise there then. The songs throughout show a great way of fusing both styles, the Power metal making it more epic and the narrative pronounced. The vocal style presents definitely the “epic doom”.
‘Transcending Sentinels’ is a great example of Doom metal, the atmospheric synths and poetic guitars in melancholy mode, before it breaks into a faster tempo, the song sounds prophetic and I love the riffs here, the guitar solo and speed break the Doom position, it’s my second favourite of the album. After speedy ‘Into Battle’ and mid-epic ‘Sojourner’ we’re into the low distorted guitars in ‘Where Angels Dare To Tread’ and the thickly despairing dark mass of despair. ‘Remembrance of a Life’ unfortunately hasn’t got a good sound quality, but it’s taken from rehearsal session (1987). It seems to be loosely influenced by a bit of Punk as well... but maybe that’s due to the sound quality itself, what comes out the most is the fast work on drums and at times but when the guitars come to it, it starts sounding as someone’s feet kicking the floor rather than drumming. Vocal feels as if coming from somewhere far or as if the singer had a cloth in his mouth, and the guitars are drowned out by the bad quality of the recording all the way through the song.
The next song from their live performance at Joes Garage ‘And Justice For All’ is beleaguered by the bad quality of recording too. You can hardly hear anything with any shred of clarity. It’s nice to hear the interaction of the singer with the audience. For the song itself, it’s mostly like standing one or two streets from an open air gig, that’s how bad the quality is though at least the guitars are more audible here. On the other hand that can introduce nostalgia for old times as much as the older song material. A ‘Mirror of Sorrow’ kicks in with much better sound quality (thanks God!) and it’s simply a superb song, evocative, powerful, epic, layered, the vocals are impressive. It also sounds towards the more modern Doom metal - a far ahead track for that time for SOLITUDE AETURNUS. It’s truly outstanding, begging many repeats...
This is certainly a treat for their fan base, but also interesting to others, who would be interested to hear something from ‘way back then’ - regarding history of the genre. The quality of the recordings whilst not great passes for decent enough, I wonder if it could have been re-mastered better, but it’s a great release regardless.
Tracklist
01. It Came Upon One Night (Demo Version 1988) – 7.33
02. Transcending Sentinels (DV 1998) – 7.42
03. Into Battle (DV 1988) – 5.07
04. Sojourner (DV 1988) – 5.36
05. Where Angels Dare To Tread (DV 1988) – 5.19
06. Remembrance of a Life (Rehearsal Session 1987) – 3.44
07. And Justice For All (Live At Joes Garage 1988) – 6.16
08. Sojourner (Rehearsal Session 1988) – 5.54
09. Mirror of Sorrow (Demo Tape 1988) – 7.33
Line-up
Robert Lowe – Vocals
John Perez – Guitars
Steve Moseley – Guitars
Steve Nichols – Drums
James Martin – Bass
Websites
http://www.myspace.com/solitudeeternal
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 8
Sound: 6
Total: 7 / 10
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