Throes of Dawn - The Great Fleet of Echoes
Firebox Records
Gothic/Atmospheric Rock/Metal
10 songs (54:25)
Release year: 2010
Throes of Dawn, Firebox Records
Reviewed by Thomas

What the hell happened? The last thing I heard from these guys was the great, if not brilliant goth/black piece Binding of the Spirit including hymns such as The Hermit. In other words black metal with a touch of the usual ice-cold Finnish grasp that sets almost every band from the booze-chugging country with all the lakes apart from the rest of us. That was however nine years ago (I skipped Quicksilver Clouds for some reason), as this rests solely on atmosphere and ambience. Think keyboards, they're appearing pretty visible in the sound picture. The guitar is also of course very distinct but has a simple sound, like they don't want to make too much out of it. It sounds pretty sketchy, no doubt about it, but all in all the overall production is mighty and satisfying. For those of you scared shitless about the guitar being a little behind, I'll let you know that it's dominant where it needs to be dominant, especially on the slightly rawer parts, the parts where they check back to their roots (which is rather rarely by the way).

In all honesty, some of the material on here sounds like downright abstract pop music that will either bore the hell out of you or catch you in a just as abstract way like it did with me. The odd Soft Whispers of A Chemical Sun did just that. The slightly nagging truth however, is that this tends to be extremely dull. Particularly during the last bundle of songs. It's a little sad that the equation doesn't dissolve, especially considering there's a bunch of brilliant tunes here. After Slow Motion however, things take a unexpected nose-dive, of course with moments of quality, though not anywhere near as much as you'd like it to be. Maybe the boys tried to pull of a minor Enslaved with this. Creating their own little big progressive universe where they do things their way, with ambient melodies mixed with short outbursts of violent parts, mainly in the shape of double-bass blasting and growling vocals. They aren't near the same level of success but have however definitely stirred up a minor storm in my head with The Great Fleet of Echoes. An album has revealed itself as both appealing and cast-away material at the same time. I don't have a lot of experience when it comes to the experimental and atmospheric stuff, this did however catch my ear despite distinct errors when it comes to song-writing. A more than potent album that might have an outcome on both sides depending on the mood your in. If you're a fan of music done like this, you should definitely give it a listen.

Killing Songs :
Entropy, Ignition of the Grey Sky, Slow Motion
Thomas quoted 77 / 100
Other albums by Throes of Dawn that we have reviewed:
Throes of Dawn - Quicksilver Clouds reviewed by Jack and quoted 90 / 100
Throes of Dawn - Binding of the Spirit reviewed by Alex and quoted 69 / 100
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