Draconian
Arcane Rain Fell

February 2006
Released: 2005, Napalm Records
Rating: 4.5/5
Reviewer: Asassinkiller

Dear sons of sadness and despair: if you haven't already slit your wrists listening to this CD, we once again recommend you to do so. It doesn't get any better. Draconian, the once promising Swedish doomsters, with teir last years sophomore release, ARCANE RAIN FELL, stopped being a promess and became a fact. If you thought WHERE LOVERS MOURN was an impressive debut, for sure you will be blown to tears with this offering. The compositions are darker, the sound is thicker and the emotions portrayed in every single obituary are as sinister yet heartful as they can get.



This time the music is much slower than in the aforementioned WHERE LOVERS MOURN. At first instance it is not as digestive and that is something I really appreciated in ARCANE RAIN FELL, because after I got to hear the CD several times, I was really dragged into an emotive and sad hypnotic atmosphere that their debut did not reach and that I had not experienced since the old Anathema days.



Time wise the songs follow the tradition of older Doom epics. The shortest one, "Daylight Misery", is 5:30, and the longest, "Death Come Near Me", is 15:22. There is a spoken piece in the middle of the CD that goes for 2:05 under the name of Expostulation, but I wouldn´t want to count it as a song.



In ARCANE RAIN FELL you will also find some female vocals, but not as many as in their debut. The vokills are as Death Metalish as they can get. Sign that shows how Draconian don´t have any plans of wimping out in the near future.



I really enjoyed "Daylight Dies" for it´s catchy chorus, "The abborrent rays" for it´s Katatonia era BRAVE MURDER DAY feel and the dreamy yet gloomy "The Everlasting Scar", man, that is what Doom Metal is really about. I really feel that the approach of slowing down the tunes really paid Draconian big time. Once you hear all the songs you will know exactly what I am talking about, cause there is no waste here.



Fans of early – mid nineties Doom Metal will find in ARCANE RAIN FELL a true jewel within the genre. Bands like (old) Anathema, Celestial Season, My Dying Bride and the likes should be proud of this bastard son. Fans who are not very familiar with Doom Metal should give the newest release from these Scandinavians a try. But I do warn you; music as thick, heavy and dense is not very easy to swallow in first instances, so give it several listens and with the proper treatment, you will reach that level of hypnosis I told you before. Listen and fly away, cause this one is definitely a highlight. Now, let's just hope these Swedes release a new razorblade release this year. Stay Heavy!!!