October 23rd 2020 will see Melodic Doom act, RED MOON ARCHITECT, release their hotly anticipated fifth studio album, titled "Emptiness Weighs The Most", via Noble Demon. While the band from Kouvola, Finland, is creating their very own world of melancholic darkness, "Emptiness Weighs The Most" is taking the listener on an intense and emotional ride through atmospheric, raw and melodic Doom soundscapes, crawling directly under your skin.
There are only a few Doom metal bands that can keep me motivated to listen to their albums. It’s not my style and I feel like it’s most of the time way too slow and too much of the same thing. One of the bands who jumps out of the peloton is for sure RED MOON ARCHITECT. They sound fresh, their music is melodic and contains enough variety to keep me into their special world. Their recent single’s motivated me to review their album and as I stated in the beginning: reviewing them means they are good enough for me and thus they have that something special that I miss in so many other bands from that genre!
Hidden is the intro and it slowly opens the door to their world: a dark and melancholic one! Chained is the first real track and burst out with deep grunts. Ville Rutanen sounds like a demon that just got out of bed and is hungry and mad at the world! The music is captivating and melodic. I like the guitars.
Next is the first song where we hear the angelic voice of Anni Valkonen. Rise starts softly, until Ville Rutanen shreds it to pieces. The song sounds like a classic but epic fight between good and evil (women against men), but it’s the woman who fears the light and wants to die instead of getting a chance of salvation.
Dethrone The Darkness is a dark track, where life looks hopeless and without any meaning: death sounds like the only way out. Despite the dark lyrics the music sounds captivating and angelic (with only a few shreds from Ville Rutanen).
One Shines Brighter changes from a piano minded soft track with a romantic feeling to a slow rager (back and forth). It’s the first time we get something positive in the lyrics. Muse sounds like written from the point of view of Ville Rutanen towards Anni Valkonen. It’s a classic doom metal track, but with a melodic groove in it and angelic parts sung by AnniValkonen. Into The Light is a fine melancholic doom metal track with all the needed ingredients and great vocals from both sides! It looks like they adore writing about the battle between light and dark! As with Reform it’s all about gathering yourself and withstand the will to go back into the darkness. It’s one of the slowest songs, but the vocals go high and low as almost in order to keep us attracted to the song. It’s a jewel, a beauty! Last one is My Beloved and is waving out the darkness and embracing the light. The song sounds as sweet as the lyrics and that is a great thing!
Well: they convinced me! I can only hope that fans of this kind of music read my review and give them the same chance as I did! As I stated in the beginning: I’m not a big fan of this genre, so If I say it’s good it’s in fact better then good! Good luck folks!
