As if it wasn't obvious enough, Depressive Years is a depressive suicidal black metal (DSBM) band. Hailing from California, a state home to black metal heavyweights Xasthur, Leviathan, and the "supergroup" Twilight, they are a great example of DSBM from the US. It seems to me that a lot of these DSBM projects are releasing only one full-length album and calling it quits shortly after. Depressive Years originally split up in 2009 after this album was released, but seems to have resurrected in 2013 having yet to put any new material out. Hopefully Brian "Schizophrenic Psychopath" K. decides to release something soon, because this is a solid example of great DSBM. Without further ado, let's discuss Depressive Years' opus "Failing to Confront Suicidal Thoughts".
A commonality within DSBM seems to be releasing albums with a small amount of insanely long songs. This album follows in the four song format which has been done a lot in black metal, examples being "Forgotten Legends" by Drudkh and "Hvis Lyset Tar Oss" by Burzum. These songs are quite long, with "Immense Emotional Pain" being the shortest and "Suffering Mental Illness" being the longest, clocking in at 9 and a half minutes and almost 21 minutes respectively. The guitars on this album are typical for this genre and are very droning and repetitive. Of course, there are some beautiful clean guitars such as the beginning to "Immense Emotional Pain". The overall riffing on this album is pretty damned good, and some of my favorite riffing on the entire album comes from the closer "Troubling Thoughts and Voices". The only downside to the guitar is it is not the dominant instrument as it should be. It certainly shines as being played quite well but it's not as in-your-face as it should be.
Brian's vocals are the main point on this album. They are very out front and in-your-face, but the issue with this is they replace the guitars as the dominant "instrument". His style of vocals are pretty standard for DSBM but they are executed very well. My issue lies with the abundance of these torturous screams. Brian seems to not know how to balance the songs out in this regard, because throughout the 54 minute album, he is constantly screaming. I am aware that these insane vocals are a must in DSBM (unless instrumental, of course), however, he could have shut up just a tad bit at certain points in the album. It wouldn't be as much of an issue if the vocals weren't so high in the mix. Underneath these vocals you can here some gorgeous melodies but they are way too overshadowed by the vocals, and because of that, they are not heard as well. At least he is a good vocalist, because if his vocals weren't of such high quality, this album would suffer greatly.
This is definitely a great DSBM release, and while it is hardly ever mentioned, even in the murkier corners of the black metal underground, it deserves much praise. There are only a few flaws within the album and they could be vastly worse than what they are. For fans of Nyktalgia, Happy Days, Sterbend, and Make a Change... Kill Yourself, and pretty much any DSBM band, this would definitely be a quintessential album to pick up.
At the moment you name your band “Depressive Years” and record an album with the name “Failing to Confront Suicidal Thoughts” you can’t make a clearer statement regarding your musical style. I can’t deny I was a bit sceptical at the beginning. With such obvious (and possibly rather silly) names I thought that this would be just another depressive black metal band from the United States playing mediocre music that will be forgotten within a few weeks at best. However, after a few listens I can safely say that the above statement is false and that it is a decent, but not very original release. But please, continue reading.
When you see a depressive black metal album with a length of 53:10 minutes and a total of four tracks you might know what to expect; long, monotonous songs with a rather low musical quality and shrieking vocals. In a certain way this is correct, but Depressive Years has made a strange decision during songwriting and recording regarding the vocals. First, they sound very impressive and are some of the better I’ve heard recently but please, why can’t the vocalist keep his mouth shut for at least a minute? The entire album is basically filled with his screaming; it keeps going and going and pauses seem nonexistent. So, while I need to congratulate the vocalist for his excellent work I can’t help it to become a bit tired of it during the third of fourth track. I really miss the instrumental parts, something that some depressive black fans even describe as essential. However, while the vocals are very good, the rest sounds rather standard with only some exceptions. So, one can ask if it was the original intention to let the vocalist continue screaming for the entire album or that it was some sort of back-up plan when the instrumental parts weren’t interesting enough. Although I personally favor monotonicity you still need to ensure it’s interesting, in the same way that the second album from Trist keeps interesting.
In conclusion, this isn’t a bad album, absolutely not. While the music is rather standard and nothing special the vocals are very impressive but in a to high quantity. When a vocalist keeps screaming for an entire album it just doesn’t work, although it’s quite an achievement to perform depressive black metal vocals for 53:10 minutes.