Yellow

I’ve been listening to The Morningside on and off since their first album. They were very inspired by Katatonia back then, not a bad thing, and I enjoyed their brand of melodic doom metal. They love to let the music do the talking and by that I mean long guitar melodies and harmonies. They could almost be seen as an instrumental band with a few vocals thrown in now and again. I see the guitars as their main ‘vocal’ as they sing and squeal throughout the tracks.

I feel this new album is the accumulation of everything they have been doing in the past. They have refined their sound and tightened up, still making heavy use of melodies but structuring the songs so much better. The album opens with slow somber notes picked out, soon replaced with tremolo picking and subtle background keyboards. The bass on the album is nicely placed, bubbling along sweetly with it’s own melodies here and there. Vocals are introduced in the second song , a decent black metal kind of rasp, but not so harsh you cannot make out the lyrics. As for lyrics, they are a bit odd when read from the booklet but that’s just my view. The tracks continue with some great solos and the pace speeds up a little here and there. You have the partnership of guitars being the second ‘vocalist’ as I like to call them, with the actual singing alongside. ‘Missing Day’ opens with a fantastic riff and continues to churn out the harmonies. Igor Nikitin’s clean vocals are not bad, they bring variety and suit the peaceful parts well.

There is always a nice riff or melody building from the guitars while the rhythm guitar chugs along in the background. The last two tracks meld into one another to produce a spectacular finale. Acoustic guitars are presented that, although are not extraordinary on their own, when combined with the amazing ‘ …Then He Walked’ it makes perfect sense. This ending stopped me in my tracks, it kicks in and has one of the best emotional riffs I’ve heard in a long time. It just repeats but never gets boring. Other elements are slowly brought in like synth, while the main guitar fades leaving you in bits. Beautiful end to a career best album.