II

So, THIS would be the second track by the Greek doom metal band Savanon; after the first one was released on the band's first demo. Well, seems like to be easy to keep track of their art as it is neatly distributed over the demos. This time, over thirty-four minutes of doom/black metal are offered, so the listener has to go through a lot in order to discover all the facets of the band's art. In comparison to their debut release, five additional minutes in length are offered.

Savanon stick with doom metal again and also in terms of the overall tempo and dynamics nothing between the first demo and this one has actually changed really. The music is slow, often minimalist and oriented on the riffs or the performance of the guitars; they are the absolute main focus of this release. Some may argue that this would generally be the case in the metal circus and Savanon only one further example to prove the validity of the argument. This is certainly true, but when the music is stripped down to the a small amount of facets, the impact of each of them is larger than an instrument in an orchestra for instance. So, each element draws a lot of attention on its play and this can backfire, but more of that later.

As it is a bit difficult to discuss this long track in one single paragraph, it will be broken down in parts and each of them will be shed light on separately.
(00:00) - (11:15): this composition opens with slow played doom metal, which receives additional support through acoustic guitars. These appear either in the background or in interludes. A clean vocals joins in the monotonous and excessive repetition of motives, while having a focus on how the riffs are played. Even though the motives are varied in some respect, Savanon is unable to overshadow the minimalism of this first part of the track.

(11:16) – (12:04): A small black metal interlude breaks up the monotony. A shift towards screams and faster played riffs can be examined, but they are too short to have a lasting impact.

(12:05) – (11:15): The doom music takes over again, but now with a different motive; the overall approach, the combination of vocals and guitars, remains though. Interestingly, the drums are vanished (12:05 - 23:05) for some time and only the strings (bass, guitar) are the only instruments to be heard. It is quite similar to the first long part, but comes with even less complexity and more repetition. Towards the end some variation -- acoustic interlude and re-appearance of the drums -- make it more interesting again.

(24:48) – (34:25):
An acoustic guitar introduces this part and then some real doom metal starts to play again; with the whole set and not stripped down to something else. This part is actually quite cool and also the keyboard segment is interesting as it is a slight counter-point to the rest of the performance. Some additional variation in the motives and segments can be found, but the orientation of the vocals on the music remains.

When I listened to this demo first, then the (clean) vocals were a real strain for me to listen to. Their strange way of singing, the odd way in which the lyrics are expressed along with the rhythm; imagine every accord played by the guitars/drums with a syllable sung by the vocals. Dynamic? Hardly anywhere and the music feels very thick and gluey. Moreover, due to this weird combination which continues for quite some time, the listener is hardly able to appreciate the atmosphere of the music as the concept sounds very artificial and drowns the nice ideas that shine through now and then. Beyond this graven flaw, further ones would be the transitions between doom and black metal -- these would generally be seamless and come as a surprise to the listener -- are not executed in a way the listener gets the idea why they appear at a certain time; now this, then that … that was it. Finally, for a composition of more than thirty minutes in length a bit too few ideas are offered. There is some variation of the main theme, but the whole set of elements is nevertheless wanting and should be increased on further releases. By putting the lack of overall catchiness together with the aspect of unnecessary (intentional) limitations in the concept, then it should be obvious that Savanon do not offer a convincing case here. To broaden the spectrum would be a neat thing to see/hear.

Final bits and bytes
Maybe my mindset is the wrong for this demo. Maybe I do not belong to the target audience the band was originally aiming at. Maybe both of this points are true and I simply do not get it. The debut demo of Savanon was something I liked and enjoyed to listen to. Rather the contrary can be said of their second one. The progression of the motives as well as the orientation of the vocals on the timing of the instruments are two aspects that in combination make it hard for me to endure II. It all feels thick and gluey, is a strain on the ear for me... leaves me confused over what is happening there. Even randomly listening to it over a longer period of time has never altered my opinion on this piece or convinced me of the hidden potential that still lurks out somewhere and waits to be discovered. To me, Savanon wanted too hard to stick to a certain approach, without realizing that it might backfire at them. So, I see this release as a disappointment, especially after the interesting first one, but not everything is lost; the band should focus their strengths and overcome the flaws in their concept in order to return on the right path again.

Note:
Well … a good deal of the above discussed matters were written over a longer period of time and under the influence of the early listening impressions. Over the time the negative perception has faded a bit and the demo has reached the state in being endurable... in some respect. Above this level it was never able to move beyond. Nevertheless, the importance of giving this release some time to grow is important and cannot be stretched too much. Yet, the excessive length and repetition of ideas are also an aspect whose impact has to be considered and weighed appropriately.