Dark Embrace have been together for a bit over three years. This is their first proper demo recording, from May 2003. At first, they were a black metal band. With line-up changes the band have gathered more influences and nowadays they perform dark gothic doom metal (well, you want some guidance, right?!).
Eerie synth intro settles the atmosphere for next 18 minutes. It also reveals there's synths used, with usual preset sounds and it flattens something immediately. However, the title songs doomy vibe (with a bell tolling!) proves my fears wrong, at least partly. The song flows well from heavier to more airy gothic soundscapes. Warm guitar is doomy, but also too light. Cello is a nice touch in its disconsolateness. An okay song. 'The Threat...' begins like older Hecate Enthroned with its blackened stuff (yeah, not good!), soon presenting dark metal and hymn-style parts making the song sound quite twisted. Good, since blackish stuff does not sound very convincing and the song turns better after that. 'Fragility of Life' feels like an outro, because it's under 3 minutes long. It is a proper song, rather simple yet nice closer (minus that annoying synth "solo").
Vocals are varying. Clean male ones sound close to young Fernando Ribeiro and are good, sometimes more "mourning". There's blackish shrieks in vein of Dani Filth and more angry, growl-like outlet (another good style). Some female vocals is heard, but not a lot, which is okay by me. They aren't bad, but doesn't shine either. Sound is of demo level, but at least every instrument can be heard well.
Mixing different things together, Dark Embrace might sound a tad individual, but to tell the truth, not much. They sound old, in a good sense of the word, like they come from 1995. This is rough compared to nowadays' over-polished eerie metal. Somehow older Moonspell comes to my mind and for me, the older Moonpell is always better! At first listenings, this sounded quite bad, but 'Bitter End' grew into a good enough first demo when I dug deeper into it.
Reviewed by Lane
11/29/2003 20:10
