What can I say, really This is a wonderful, fantastical, foaming-at-the-mouth-and-falling-over-backwards-whilst-writing-an-advert-inducing album; the best metal album to come out of England since the NWOBHM Fuck Published CYC 011-2 CD (2007).In fact, if anything I consider this to be as much heavy metal as it doom and the band is all the better for it.Lamentations, although a fair album in its own right, feels a little drab in places and especially when its stood next to this monumental piece an appropriate analogy would be like comparing a city park to a windswept moor.
![]() Of course, this large sonic overhaul was aided by some serious overhauling in line-up as Solstice mastermind, Professor RM Walker and Lee Netherwood are the only members to have featured on 1996s Halycon EP. Although, his predecessor was a fine vocalist, and perhaps more technically confident, Morris Ingram is perfect for this album; his voice just seems very pure and he certainly plays a large part in this albums appeal. Hes the velvet glove over these iron-fisted riffs, if I were to just sum him using Motrhead lyrics. On lead guitar, too, Hamish Glencross who wasnt even 20 at this time does a fine job; hes a bit flash in places but his solos have a strong sense of drama to them. ![]() Whats unique about Solstice for me, though, is their identifiably English sound and for my money this is probably the purest display of heavy metal finery from England outside of the NWOBHM movement. And whatever reason, Englands never quite been able to get a decent heavy metal scene again since the early 80s. Basically, there were no other bands in Britain producing stuff like this at the time (there still arent, really). So to find English metal thats this fucking good really warms my heart of stone and blood of ice. I guess you can readily compare the first Solstice album to a fair bit of the deathdoom scene (for instance, its not that far apart from early Anathema) but on New Dark Age the band are definitely going for full-frontal albeit doomy heavy metal; its like they just drank eight pints of Manowarian ale before going in to record this stuff. Solstice New Dark Age Rar How To Really ArrangeWhats more is that this music is beautifully structured; not only can Rich Walker write brilliant Cimmerian skull-crushing riffs but he knows how to really arrange this stuff perfectly. These songs tend to be on the lengthy side, anyway, but its all the subtle twists and turns that makes them so magical. Take the opener, The Sleeping Tyrant with its proud, vibrant melodies: when the main riff comes in its wonderful but then youre left in awe when they change things up a little as the rhythm guitar comes crashing in with the main riff in front of it. No matter how many times Ive heard it, it just feels so glorious. Cromlech, too, has this masterful structure; those moody, swarthy guitars and then that crushing main riff. Solstice seem to always know the best way to combine these beautiful melodies with a bruising heaviness that works so very well especially with that grand guitar sound. You can really tell that a lot of time and effort went into producing this album; lyrically and musically this is so obviously first-rate stuff. It makes me laugh to think how grand this actually is compared to stuff thats obviously trying much too hard to be grand without any actual muscle behind it. ![]() Fuck the wankers, give me some epic riffs Ahem, yes, this is a very easy album to get excited about; it deserves repeated listens for anyone with a remote interest in epic heavy metal. With any luck the band should be back in 2012 with a new album the new material Ive heard is, expectedly, fantastic and its probably my most anticipated release for some years.
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