The Pitch: California progressive death metal band Dawn Of Ourorboros serve up serious melancholy with The Art Of Morphology via Rain Without End. FFO: Ne Obliviscaris, Be'lakor
What I Like: Taken piece by piece, there is a lot to appreciate with The Art Of Morphology. Chelsea Murphy delivers both haunted screams and sultry cleans on the vocal front, Tony Thomas serves up some pretty exquisite, Be’lakor-esque progressive death metal riffs, and the drums, bass, and atmospheric keys are all totally on point. Lead single “Sorrow’s Eclipse” perhaps most adeptly illustrates all of these elements together, from the emotive, melodic soloing to the grandiosely melancholic atmosphere. There are many moments on this album that truly catch you up in the moment and carry you away to far off places. It’s the depressive isolation of Katatonia meets the progressive experimentation of Ne Obliviscaris.
Critiques: Unfortunately, these solid elements don’t quite add up to greater sum. In fact, as a whole it’s a bit of a mess that seems to come down to the songwriting. Compositions meander almost aimlessly from one set piece to the next, rarely fostering a sense of cohesion. As a result, it’s difficult to even recommend any particular song, but rather specific time stamps within them. Again, there a some great moments, but they just don’t come together for me.
The Verdict: Dawn Of Ouroboros have all of the right ingredients in terms of performance and atmosphere, but ultimately this album feels like it wasn’t in the oven long enough. Given some extra growth in the songwriting department though, I could see this band really breaking out in the future. Sample it for yourself and let us know what you think.
Flight's Fav's: Spiral of Hypnotism, Sorrow’s Eclipse, Serpents Charm
- Review By FlightOfIcarus
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