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Season's End - The Failing Light (6/10) - Great Britain - 2005
Genre: Gothic Metal
Label: 1 Records
Playing time: 48:06
Band homepage: Season's End
Tracklist:
Touch >mp3
A Ghost In My Emotion >mp3
One Sadness
Innocence
Nothing At All
Celestia
SEASON’S END formed in 1998 and self-released two EPs in 1999 and 2000, then released “The Fading Light” in 2004. For better promotions sake, they re-released the full-length the next year and that’s the version we’re dealing with. Once more, it seems everybody else likes a band more than I do. Metal Hammer called this band “the new heroes of British Goth,” while Terrorizer said they were the second best unsigned band of 2005. I’ll just say they have some talent, but need to learn how to use it better.
Have you heard LACUNA COIL? Have you heard “Darkness And Hope” by MOONSPELL? If so, just think about those two things put in a paint mixer and you’ll have a pretty good idea of what SEASON’S end sounds like, Gothic Metal without much embellishment but with a distinctly Alternative/Doom vibe. Unfortunately, like the two soundalikes I mentioned above, SEASON’S END has one deadly flaw: repetition.
Yes, the songs are in the 7 to 9 minute range, but most of the time there’s enough material in here for only four, maybe five minutes. The songs just keep doing the same thing again and again without much variation. If you can handle that, this album will probably get higher marks in your eyes. As it is, that’s one of my personal weaknesses, so SEASON’S END doesn’t fair so well.
The main vocalist of the band is Becki Clark, who also handles cello and viola duties (don’t get too excited by those instruments—I honestly can’t remember having heard either on the album). She’s a perfectly good vocalist, obviously trained by not operatic. She’s certainly a good talent, but I wish they’d had guitarist David Stanton sing a bit more, as he has a really interesting tenor voice with intriguing texture. The vocals are really what carry this album.
There’s nothing terribly wrong with this album, but most of it is stuff we’ve heard before. I want to give SEASON’S END a higher rating, but they really need to mature a bit, get an editor, or do something else to really differentiate themselves. Their website talks about how much SEASON’S END differentiates themselves from the other Gothic Metal bands—now let’s see them keep that promise. (Online March 7, 2006)
