The Failing Light

You know when you are up at oh :looks at clock: 4:40am and you don't really want to sleep just yet? This album is perfect for these kinds of nights. Season's End currently follow what I like to call the Beauty and the Beast format when it comes to vocalists.

Combined with the music the two vocalists have a Lacuna Coil vibe going on.. their early stuff at least. That is they are unlike After Forever or Epica where the male vocales tend to have a lot of grunts, growls, and the like. The male vocalist is really there to support the female vocalist. Where as in Lacuna Coil for example, the male and female "split" their lyrics up.

Musically this album can be relaxing yet heavy, at different times. This is usually just a change to guitar & double bass drum sixteenth notes - nothing to complex but enough to change it up a bit for a few measures and then a song will return to its more melodic side.

I personally don't like it a lot when bands opt to have like 4 songs on an album but they average 10-15minutes each... except when they do it right. For instance, I may want to listen to an album in my car but I'm only driving 8 minutes or 16 minutes. I'd rather listen to 4 tunes then just 1 and a half.

In the case of the failing light, the length of the tracks work and because there are only six tracks it makes you wish the band allowed more tracks to be on the album (it is only 48 minutes after all). Hell right now I keep on finding my self going back to the first track because I'm already at the last track and want more.

Overall - Great vocalist combination; not to relaxing but not to heavy. Really great for something to chill to or perhaps get a 3rd wind. You've might have heard bits of the album from other bands but really great if those bands have become annoying in any way. Major down side is of course the fact that its a realtively short album both in track and total length... but that of course can be a compliment in disguise.

I first heard about Seasons End two years ago when I saw them mentioned on the 'Bloodstock Festival' page and decided to go to their website and see what they were about. Once on there I heard 'Ghost In my Emotion' and ever since then I have been hooked.
The one thing that everyone seems to go on about in female fronted bands is how good the lead singer is and its the same with Seasons End - Becki's voice sounds perfect for them.
The album starts off with 'Touch' which is a rather slow brooding track which builds itself up for for the first 4 minutes when Becki tells "my soul flies away" and as the listener you are lost in the track. The only down side to the album for some people may be the length (clocking in at 48:11 with 6 tracks) but it never seems as if any of the songs drag on.
Next is, my personal favourite track, Ghost In My Emotion. This is the 1st track where Davids vocals are prominent (he uses cleans vocals) and it all fits together nicely containing some nice melodic parts and some heavy parts. At one point David sings "try to soar" and Becki's voice duly does.
One Sadness and Innocence are the two slow tracks on the album and are partly keyboard driven. Although they are slow they don't sound out of the place on the album and fit in nicely with the feel the band have going.
Definately my second track on the album - Nothing After All. Almost of the same mould as Ghost In My Emotion but the chorus blew me away. The layered vocals sound beautiful together.
Celestia clocks in at just under 10 minutes and for a closing track can seem a bit overdue in its length but the vocals are the one thing that save Season's End whenever it may seem as if they are waning in any other department.
Although they are only receiving larger recognition now and fall into the category of "another female fronted gothic metal band ala Nightwish, Theatre Of Tragedy etc" any comparisons like that don't do the band the justice that they deserve.