Sometimes I come across a release which feels like any lingering positivity and joy for life has been sucked out. The increasingly abundant crop of post-rock, post black metal bands such as Harakiri For The Sky, Fall of Efrafa and Year Of No Light are probably good examples – not raw with anger or hate but seared on the cold heat of inner turmoil that gives the impression of life on the edge of catastrophe. The Fifth Alliance is a battered apple that has not fallen far from the particular tree. But it extends the musical bandwidth a bit further taking in slabs of doom alongside the grinding sludge and post-metal that anyone who has with those bands will already be familiar with,
Silvia’s vocals are probably the first thing that stands out. Occasionally clean but mainly blackboard-grating screeches, identifiably female and epitomising that post-hardcore sound with haunting, depressive edges. They are clearly presented right at the front of the band’s sound and only occasionally fight to stay from being swallowed by the rising tide of distortion. The doom element is probably the next most obvious thing to loom from the speakers at you – even though it is perhaps a little misleading because I imagine few natural fans of classic doom are going to be settling in for an evening with this.
But it’s there with heavy, reverberating footsteps and slow, cold, sea-shore lapping riffs which gradually get built out into thundering compositions as the wind gets behind them. Boy, is this bleak – and largely untempered by any melodic gloss. Lingering undistorted chords provide the only decoration to the gloomy setting. It’s a good six minutes into the release before the heavier riffs land – changing the landscape of the first track Your Abyss entirely. Even at its basic introductory level this is an ear catching release – the strung-out vocals agonisingly fragile against the mighty, irresistible weight of those guitars.
Death Poems is only the second release for this Dutch outfit after 2013’s Unrevealed Secrets of Ruin. I was surprised to find out that the band has been active since well into the last decade because there is a freshness to the sound which feels like its still forming.
But, even acknowledging that, it takes a while for the brilliance of the band to shine through. At times you feel like things aren’t really going anywhere as the end of the album approaches. But there a few sudden gear changes that jolt you back out of the band’s monochromatic depression. And with the arrival of the final track the band releases some of its blackened potential to wash away the emotional trauma of the first 25 minutes in one last purge.
Death Poems is an emotionally draining ride. A nice mix of doom and post-metal with some piercing vocals that you’re unlikely to forget in a hurry.
(7.5/10 Reverend Darkstanley)
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