Dawn of Solace – Flames of Perdition

Those who’ve been following the music career of Tuomas Saukkonen know very well that he is a busy man. To those who don’t know, he’s the mastermind behind bands Wolfheart, Before The Dawn and Black Sun Aeon to name a few.  After putting all his bands and projects to rest, to focus only on one unified outfit Wolfheart, the recent resurrection of Dawn of Solace was a pleasant surprise. After long 14 years, the band released their brilliant comeback album Waves. An album that was somewhat different than the dark debut The Darkness. It saw a duo consisting of Saukkonen (all instruments) and his longtime collaborator Mikko Heikkilä on vocals combining their creativity. Needless to say, it was a perfect combination. The change up to use almost exclusively clean vocal was a great move.

Now riding those waves is the follow up Flames of Perdition.  Overall atmosphere and sound of the album feel like a natural continuation of Waves. But it has its own little surprises. I have to point one thing out; I love how Tuomas makes albums consisting of 8-10 songs clocking in around 40-50 minute mark. Honestly, it works pretty well, as the listener never gets to a point of listening fatigue, that you might get from longer albums sometimes. This also gave me a bit of room to mention some highlights of every song on this on this album. So, shall we?

Opener White Noise starts off with a beautiful acoustic guitar intro followed by heavy guitar tones and sorrowful Mikko’s  vocals. After the mellow and slow verse comes soaring chorus. It has such beautiful melodies and a captivating guitar solo. It’s probably one of the best songs from the band so far. Erase steps in to bring some groove after its long, guitar driven intro. With lyrical theme that speaks of letting things go or simply erasing them and move on, the song has a rather catchy chorus.

The title track Flames of Perdition starts as piano driven song paired with vocals, which reminds me of a last albums closing song Ghost. That is until it picks up the steam for a moment with thundering riffs and drums. Especially at the very end of the song that has even more up tempo section.  Dying light is somewhat of a typical DoS song, if there is even such a thing. Softer acoustic verses are exchanging places with powerful choruses with more upbeat tempo.

Then comes Event Horizon. This is my favorite song by the band so far. It has a bit unusual  arrangement, starting with two verses (well, one and a half really) instead of one, and then transcending into the epic melodic catchy chorus. And after instrumental section it goes back to chorus again, without revisiting the verse section again. I often find myself humming the chorus melody. It follows you everywhere. It’s that good!

Black Shores picks up the pace and fires on all cylinders, before it suddenly stops and shifts into more darker piano part and blasting off again. One of the more, for the lack of a better word, aggressive songs here. Even if it has that everlasting gloomy vibe of the album

.More doom tempo acoustic beginning of Skyline builds up to another powerful chorus. We can also hear a beautiful and heartfelt guitar solo that gets interrupted with a closing piano part that slowly fades out  after almost minute and a half.

As a finale comes Serenity. This song sounds exactly like the title suggests. It’s something a bit unexpected on the album, yet it fits perfectly as a closing song. It took me by surprise on my first listen of the album. Being solely instrumental, the beautiful acoustic guitars underlined with pulsating keyboards take you on a path of all kinds of cathartic and sad feelings while listening to it. This made a very nice composition to close out the album.

Dawn of Solace certainly felt the work of magic of the combining forces of the musicians, and this album further proves it.  This makes me wonder what are they going to come up with next. And knowing Tuomas, it might not be very long for that to happen. Until then, I’ll be patiently waiting for my vinyl copy of the album, to enjoy it and appreciate it even more.

Dawn of Solace – Flames of Perdition 8.5/10

Mikro IMP

Check out Dawn of Solace official sites for merch and music of your desired region and album links to your preferred streaming platforms here: https://music.nobledemon.com/flames

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