ALBUM REVIEW: On Thorns I Lay – On Thorns I Lay
Despite being one of the first death-doom acts to come out of Greece, ON THORNS I LAY have never achieved the same sort of worldwide acclaim that many of their contemporaries who formed in the late 80s and early 90s have. The band’s shift towards gothic metal after their second album probably means that they are more likely to be known in that corner of the metal world, but make no mistake, when they return to their roots they can produce music that is on par with some of the genre’s heaviest hitters. Since the release of their 2018 album, Aegean Sorrow, the band have been doing just that, stripping away much of the overt gothic pomp from their sound and reverting to a harder, bleaker style. Their tenth album, On Thorns I Lay, shows a band that are perhaps at their most diverse musically, bringing together their classic death-doom sound with hints of goth and folk for a record that stands amongst their best.
Fallen From Grace is an ambitious start, with haunting ambience and grandiose orchestral flourishes that quickly give way to a dark and powerful piece of death-doom with huge gutturals, muscular guitars and cavernous drums that lend this an imposing sound without shedding any of the gothic elements that kicked this track off. Soaring leads and acoustic touches make for a dramatic and intense introduction to proceedings that is incredibly engrossing. Newborn Skies, by contrast, is a relatively short and punchy offering that really allows the underlying melody that was present in the opener to come to the fore, peppering this fairly dense and rhythmic effort with slick riffs and a lighter edge that makes it accessible and memorable, and contributing to an epic quality that shines through the bleaker core of the music.
Crestfallen, with its folky, acoustic opening, strikes a balance between the crisp hooks of the preceding track and the sombre, funereal pace of the first, with the steadier drums and vast chords providing a great backdrop upon which to build brooding guitars and throaty vocals, tempering the melancholic moments with a forceful edge and delicate keyboards which add further depth to this monolithic number, proving to be one of the album’s most eclectic and adventurous songs. Among The Wolves shifts to a groove-laden approach, punctuated by polished riffs, thunderous percussion and impactful vocals. It’s a minimalistic style compared with earlier tracks, but still possesses a weighty side that makes everything sound gargantuan, with the subtle gothic pomp interwoven into this doom-laden affair. The virtuosic soloing and varied tones do inject some impressive sections into this track that make it come alive, transforming this into a bombastic and captivating juggernaut.
Raise Empires reverts to the sort of catchy and warm sound that was prevalent on Newborn Skies, exploring this polished sound in a longer form. It’s centred around the counterpoint between the crystalline leads and the fierce vocals, which act as a monstrous anchor as the music surrounding them ebbs and flows between tight passages and ethereal moments. It’s a majestic piece of death-doom with fantastic guitar work that sets the listener up for the album’s final track, Thorns Of Fire, extremely well. This particular song has a slow-burning, ponderous quality to it, gradually gathering momentum and introducing new components into the sound, but for the most part this remains a mid-paced offering with some excellent growls, acoustic, folk-inflected interludes, jarring guitar flourishes and a confident, pummelling undercurrent that lends this a wider-ranging and heavier sound. It’s a powerful and grandiose effort with a lot of great twists and turns within it, bringing proceedings to a conclusion on an incredibly immersive and dramatic track.
As a fairly wide-ranging piece of music, On Thorns I Lay serves as one of the most ambitious albums that this band have made so far. The band clearly know when to allow either the death or doom metal influences within their sound rise to the forefront, and they inject enough variety into the mix to keep things interesting and provide something different with each track, meaning that each song has its own distinct edge that differentiates it from the others. The lead guitars especially are magnificent at points, and it’s a shame that there are moments when they sound partially buried beneath the muscular rhythms and vocals, because if they had featured a little higher in the mix, it would be a lot more readily apparent just how good they are. It’s rare for a band to produce one of their strongest albums so far into their career, but this is certainly one of them, and with the band now signed to Season Of Mist, they’ll garner the attention they deserve with this album and the nine that came before it.
Rating: 8/10
On Thorns I Lay is out now via Season Of Mist.
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