It’s the fifth full length album by my calculations for German band Decembre Noir since 2014. I don’t believe I had the pleasure before, but usually Lifeforce Records are a fair barometer that the music within is likely to be something I’m going to enjoy. It’s certainly an album that caught me a little by surprise, and has found itself to be something that I’ve been playing to myself for far longer than other review records that I have.

At heart, “Your Sunset My Sunrise” could be generally categorised as a fairly melodic doom / death album, though I’m not sure that this would necessarily do it justice. It’s a fairly expansive romp through depressive, melancholic metal, but with some gothic moments, and some expansive rock sections that punctuate the crushing riffs. Opener, “Dead End: May” is a very impressive piece of work. It has the kind of soaring, clear lead guitars that work so, so well against the harsh, growled vocals. I was pretty much put in mind of excellent melodic death meal in parts of the style, of say Dark Tranquillity – or more recently the fantastic British band, Countless Skies, but also colliding headlong with the kind of utterly miserable slower and devastating riffs that you would experience with the giants of the doom genre.

“Against the Daylight” opens up in a far more aggressive manner, leaning back into a purer death metal framework, all elbows-out axe work and face-gurning palm-muting. The title track is, again, the perfect marriage between melancholy melody lines doing battle against the brutality of the rhythm section. Epic mid-album song, “Sentimental Giants” has that emotional doom piece done perfectly – yes, in parts the gallop around the chorus can be a little cheesy, but then isn’t emotional doom / death always treading that fine line between the soul and the comically tragic? For me, Decembre Noir always manage to just keep their feet the right side of the lace-hanky excess of gothic metal.

“Sleepwalker (In Yesterday’s Smoke)” starts with an “Eeuuuurgh” from vocalist Lars, and then manages to writhe and muscle its way into your ear holes with a dash of pure metal. I reckon this would be an absolute beast in the live setting. Epic closer “Trivial Heart” is …. well, epic. At over eight minutes long and more surprises than a Jack-in-the-box factory, when it fades into the sound of wind at the end, you’ll probably be left wanting more – as I did.

Far less weepy and far more metal than most of their peers, Decembre Noir have managed to find that sweet spot here between memorably melodies, emotion and sheer metal. Excellent work and very much recommended.

(9/10 Chris Davison)

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https://decembrenoirlfr.bandcamp.com/album/your-sunset-my-sunrise