Damnum per Saeculorum

The current most recent My Silent Wake album Damnum Per Saeculorum is another strike in the eye for people who thought that they were a soppy gothic doom outfit. People like me, that means, at least when I first heard their name. Though it’s decidedly a risk for any band to abandon their signature sound more than a little on any release, the doom death and sometimes gothic metal collective ditched all the heavy guitars, winding song structures, and growls for a trip into calm atmospheric folk, classical, and ambient. Unlike some other MSW albums, where a minor adjustment in heaviness and influence took place, Damnum Per Saeculorum goes way off the track into medieval instruments, sprawling balladry, and extremely relaxed vibes at times.

Some of the 15 pieces that make up the 66 minute total last only a minute or two, though the latter portion of the album expands track lengths beyond 4 minutes most of the time, allowing the listener access to this quiet and fragile world in gradual steps. Especially when ‘Of Loss and Regret’ and then ‘To Feel the Caress of Long Dead Lovers’ spread out over 8 and 6 minutes respectively, these compositions begin to feel like stories or small vignettes, the former track approaching a movie vibe from the voiceover and big swish of sound that all lead up to a one-way climax. The back part of the album too strikes me as a very deliberate attempt to be intimate, the pace dropping down almost to a standstill and minimalist techniques concentrating everything on a few quiet elements. I was worried that the album would be overlong, yet hearing ‘Berceuse’ last made me extremely glad that I persevered, despite being the kind of piano and violin ballad I usually hate. For one thing, it has a modicum of waltzing rhythm; otherwise, it’s all that kind of ‘Something in the Air Tonight’ tension that keeps the song together until it suddenly unfolds a dramatic crescendo of operatic singing.

The close of Damnum Per Saeculorum stands rather in contrast to its opening, when ‘Warhawks’ gives off the musty aroma of a dug-up medieval ballad, surprising as a harsh vocal enters midway. I’m not absolutely sure the growls were needed, even if they do something to paganize that cut; in the main, vocals appear more sparsely than on typical MSW material, both Ian Arkley’s cleans and those of a female voice sharing space partly in focus and partly as backing for instrumental movements, all of which can be glimpsed on ‘Monochrome’, for instance. Hence, we can see that vocally Damnum Per Saeculorum is pretty diverse, and that extends to the whole album too, since this represents no fleeting association with non-heavy sounds but a rich and detailed exploration of softer realms using a wide palette. The funny thing is that I’d much sooner put this on at a real solemn wake than any of the heavier albums by this band, because it combines strands of the melancholy, the romantic, and the haunting, knotting them through with a gentle reverence, just as such an occasion demands. An unexpected left turn indeed, but a very positive surprise.