The Fading Rays of the Sun

Hardly a month passed by in 2009 without a release from Drowning The Light, it seems, and "The Fading Rays of the Sun" was the last of twelve recordings DtL made that year: fittingly it came out just in time for Christmas, the holiday that replaced most pagan celebrations of the shortest day of the year in northern Europe. The EP starts off in late-summer radiant form (uh ... well it would be radiant if the EP and the intro track weren't called "The Fading Rays ...") with streaming noise guitar, melancholy clean-toned guitar melodies and echo-laden synth raindrop tones that reverberate in such a way that listeners cannot help but be touched by the sadness and longing as eternal darkness sweeps the forest and the last humans ingest the secret knowledge they have long sought which kills them. The multi-vocal singing may verge on the barmy at times but it's one of the best elements on this EP: by turns, it's creepy and crabby, deep and menacing.

Subsequent tracks pick up the momentum where the title track leaves off and add more roving riffs and rhythms with crunch and swagger. Vocal histrionics increase on "Tide of Vengeance" together with a turn towards malevolence in the streaming guitar blizzard as a ritual addressed to demons of the briny depths is enacted. As the shouting fades, the guitar clouds rally right to the end. "Apparitions of Decay" brings up the rear in an elegiac way with gentle doleful strum and raindrop tone against a steely guitar backdrop and dark cavernous atmosphere.

This is an excellent mini-concept album release with all tracks on fire and no let up. The only thing perhaps that detracts from the recording as a whole is the drumming which is swamped by the guitar storm and the theatrical vocals. Music such as this needs strong and crisp percussion to help propel it along. Assuming that this EP was recorded after everything Azgorh had done over the rest of the year, I am surprised he still had plenty of energy, ideas and enthusiasm to put this one out. There is plenty of feeling all the way through: a feeling that the Earth has seen its best days and there is only one way to go and that being downwards into darkness and evil. There's not much left to do except to acknowledge our new masters from deep in the Earth below.